Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ, about five minutes ago, this is the hymn that you sang. Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, you are mine. Mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach me what I am. My question for you is, is the Bible, the Holy Bible, the book divine, a precious treasure to you. That's what you're saying. Were you genuine? Were you sincere that the Bible is a precious treasure given to you from our God? If that's the case, how often do you spend time in that precious treasure? How do you demonstrate in your life that the Bible is truly a precious treasure given to you from above? Do you know that the Scriptures teach that God has exalted His Word above His very name? That's how we are to reverence His Word. We are to live as the people of God from every word that proceeds out of the mouth of our God. We are to bow to His Word. We are to be those who say yay and amen. Lord, here your servant stands. What would you have me to do? We are not to be a people that argues with the word. We are not to be a people who thinks that we're wiser than the word. We are not to be a people that close our ears to the word. We are not to be a people that have a famine for the hearing of the word within our own soul. We are to live by the word of the true and living God. So I ask you again, how precious is this book in your life? You see, that is going to demonstrate whether or not your obedience to this word, whether or not this word is truly precious in your sight. That your precious possession is the word of the true and living God. It always comes down to this, beloved, a matter of authority. Don't tell me you're a believer if you don't spend any time in the Word of God. Don't tell me that you're a Christian if you have no time for God's Word. Don't tell me that you are one who is born of the Spirit of God, if you don't have a heart for the Word of God. Because the Spirit of God regenerates sinners to be children of God, to have their affection for God through His Word. That's how you show your affection to the true and living God. In your obedience to His Word, bowing to His authority. People who don't love Christ continually cry out in their heart, we will not have this man to rule over us. We will go our own way. We will do our own thing. We will think our own thoughts. As a matter of fact, we don't want God in any of our thinking. That's not the attitude of the child of God. The attitude of the child of God is one of submission to the word of God. Listen, beloved, not to be saved, but because you are the saved. I'm concerned when the scripture gives us imperatives of what we are to do as the people of God. Holy admonitions of the gospel. To live according to God's word and people immediately cry out, that's legalism. Legalism is you trying to be saved by your works, by being obedient to the law of God. That's legalism. Holy, reverential fear and love for God is bowing to his word. That's what you find in the scriptures. Now, is the Bible your precious treasure? Is this how you live? Would it be said of you that the word of Christ dwells in you richly? Dwells in you richly. That you might be able to walk in wisdom. That you might be able to teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That you might be able to sing in your hearts unto the Lord. That's the demonstration of one who is filled with the Spirit of God. He is dominated. He is ruled. He is controlled by the Word of God. So don't say that the Word is your precious treasure when you have no time for it. Because I know every one of you ladies out here who are married, who have a wedding ring, that first is an engagement ring, You show it to everybody. You make sure that it's seen. You do things like this so it's seen. Let it be seen, let it be known. Let it be demonstrated who I love and who loves me. It's the same way in our obedience, in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ doesn't redeem us to go our own way. Christ redeems us. to be conformed after His image, and His image is perfect keeping of the law. Yeah, I know that we won't have perfection in this life, but that's where we're headed, and you ought to be on that road now of walking according and after the commandments of God. So again, it's always one of authority, isn't it? The two builders, one was wise and one was foolish. Why was the one wise? Because he not only heard the Word, but he implemented the Word in his life. He carried it out in his life. The fool was the one who heard and went about and went his own way, did his own thing. You know what's scary about that parable in Matthew 7? It's that the two builders are set next to one another. If you read that, they were both under the same admonition, the same wind, the same flood, the same water came and flooded their houses. And one was washed away and one stood. It's the same flood that hit those two homes. You know what that represents? It represents those that are in the church. Those that are founded upon the rock Christ Jesus, and those that are not. Those that hear and obey and those that want to go their own way, even though they hear. The way of the world is that the Word of God is foolishness. They stop their ears to the Word of God. The Word believes the Bible to be of human origin. It believes it to be traditions. It doesn't believe it to be anything to do with the true and living God. They deny that. They hate the Word. They hate the law of God. They don't want the law in any of their thinking. And so they go about in their life in this way. But that's not the view that the Scripture gives. Many that deny the Word of God have never read the Word of God. They have never studied the Word of God. They have never investigated into anything regarding those who have studied their life long the Word of the true and living God. That's their opinion about the Bible. Jesus said that the Word of God could not be broken. Jesus said that the Word of God was that by which will judge you in the last day. Jesus said it's the Word of God that sets you free. And you who are free are free indeed. That is the view of Jesus Christ about the Word. It's the Word that sanctifies you. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. It's eternal. It's indestructible. Although the world hammers and bangs against the word of God, it can never break the word of God. The word of God is never broken by society. Society is broken by the word of the true and living God. Jesus said that He is making His enemies the footstool of His feet. Either by regeneration or by casting them to hell for all eternity, Jesus is doing His work in this world. Paul said that all Scripture is God-breathed. He said that the Gospel in Galatians 1 did not come from man. He said He didn't learn it from men. He got it directly as a revelation from Jesus Christ. It's the Word of the true and living God. 1 Corinthians 15, that great chapter regarding the resurrection, it's saying the same thing. The gospel wasn't revealed by men. It was from God. That's Paul's view of the Scriptures. God has revealed these truths to us, 1 Corinthians 2, by His Holy Spirit. Things that would be unknown to us. apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He said that the Word of God works effectively in those who believe. He told the Thessalonians that they were those in whom the Word of God was working effectively. And they received the Word, and they did so, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. David said that the Word was on my lips, and I did speak it. He spoke the Word of the true and living of God. Seven times in the book of Revelation, John says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. This is the Word of the Spirit of God, who inspires this Word. This is breathed out of the mouth of God. It's a precious treasure. Your words, Lord, pure. They're like silver, tried seven times in a furnace. Settled forever, O God, in the heavens is Thy Word. It's a lamp unto my feet. It's a light unto my path. That is the Word that we have, beloved. This is what Paul is saying in the text that we have before us this morning. If you have your Bibles, look to the text, 1 Timothy 3. What you are to believe about God's Word is what God says about His Word. Not what you think it says, not what somebody else says it is, but what God says it is. And that pertains to everything in life. It is what God says it is. And this is what Paul says in our text this morning. Verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now, stop right there. All scripture, the Greek term passe graphe, all the writings. Peter even said in 2 Peter 3 that Paul's writings were among the scriptures of God. But all the writings that God has given to His church, through the prophets, through the apostles, they are all inspired by God. Now, it doesn't mean that the apostles and prophets wrote, and then God breathed into their writing. That's not the force of the Greek word there. Theopneustos means that God breathed out His word through these men. They wrote down His word as He breathed through them. Calvin understood it as an organic inspiration, that God used the whole personality of the man as he breathed out his word through them. So you have Paul writing exactly what he wants to write, and yet the scriptures declare that what he writes is the word of the true and living God. He deals with difficult things. We see in 1 Corinthians, He deals with all kinds of things. That's exactly what God has His church to hear. Even down to this age, it's constantly a republication of the Word. The Word is always to be preached and to be taught in the midst of a congregation. Why? Because new people are always coming. Yes, there are those that have been here for years. And yes, they will die. And the new will come. And God demonstrates His love to His people, that His Word is continually being published abroad in the congregation. I want you to think about something for a moment. I know your pastor. I know him quite well. And I know that He teaches the truth. And I know He loves the truth. I know that He's zealous for the truth. And in having a man in this pulpit, every Lord's Day, declaring that truth to you, whether you like the man's personality or not, is totally irrelevant. He brings you food for your soul. That's God's demonstration of love to you, beloved. Do you realize that? I mean, it's all too easy to murmur and gossip and slander and backbite and say all kinds of manner of evil against the pastor because he doesn't do what you think he should do. He's not here for you to do what you think he should do. He is here as a servant of Christ to open up the bread of life to you, which is God's love to you. If the time comes that you have a man who stands at this pulpit and does not preach this Word, God has removed his lampstand from the church. The Spirit of God no longer dwells among this corporate body of people. So I want you to reflect on that. That as you receive the Word every Lord's Day, that's God's love to you. And you ought to praise God and thank Him for that. You know how many people don't hear the truth? You know how people stop their ears to the truth? Read Acts chapter 7, when Stephen stood in front of the Sanhedrin, and he rehearsed the Old Testament law, and he talked all the way through from Genesis, all the way through the revelation of Jesus Christ. And they plugged their ears at the truth, and rushed at him with one accord, and took him out and stoned him. Because they would not hear the truth. This is God's Word given to us. And you receive it as such. It's God's Word, as it works through apostles and prophets. God breathed through them, even as Peter says in 2 Peter 1, that they were moved along, they were blown along by the Holy Spirit to write the will and the Word of God. Think of that for a moment. They were like a ship on the ocean, and God was pushing them whichever way he willed. That's what the word is revealed to us to be. The inspired word of the true and living God, and it's for us to obey. God has given us his word for that purpose. is given by inspiration, that it's given. The revelation is given, and it's the inspiration that is the vehicle to bring his word to us. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So when you hear this word read and preached, and when the minister faithfully expounds the text of scripture, it's not a good message from the pastor. It's Christ speaking to you through the mouthpiece that is ordained for that purpose to bring you the word. It's not exalting the man. It's exalting the word. And you need to bow to that, beloved. Submission to the word of God is the only response for the people of God. When you're pricked in your heart from the word, the only response that you can give that's appropriate is repentance. So the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy, he's telling him, it's, you know, from a youth, from your childhood, from a nursing infant, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation. In other words, apart from the Word of the true and living God, there is no salvation. Now think of the implications of that. When the Word no longer comes, there is no longer a possibility to be saved. Because no one is saved apart from the Word of God. The Holy Spirit works in and through the preaching and the teaching of the Word to regenerate the souls of men, bring faith to their heart, and obedience to the true and living God. To love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as a country, think about how much of this country has turned away from the hearing of God's Word. What does it say for the people that are in this nation who despise the Word of God? The hypocritical nonsense. Something disastrous happens, and the churches are all flooded with the hypocrites who only want the gifts from God, but they don't want the giver. They don't want Him. They only want the things. When the economy is good, the pews are empty. When the economy gets bad, then we cry out, help us God. That's hypocritical. That's not genuine. That's not sincere. That's going through the motions. That's putting the mask on. God gives his word that makes us wise unto salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word teaches us that salvation is by believing the word of God. It's by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by hearing his voice. He is the good shepherd and the shepherd is heard through the proclamation of the word. Are you hearing the voice of the shepherd? Are you following after him? Where he leads, there we go. That's the response of the sheep of his pasture. The Word is profitable. It doesn't mean you're going to make money. I mean, there are a lot of heretics or a lot of false teachers that are making all kinds of money on TV with all their foolishness, with all of the hypocritical nonsense that they bring. You know, I got a prayer cloth here and I prayed over it. I'll send it to you and it'll heal you. And millions of people buy into that. I researched something one time about Joel Osteen. If you're watching Joel Osteen, stop watching Joel Osteen. He doesn't preach the gospel. He's a self-help guru. He teaches you with the right sayings and the right words, then you can create your own reality. He's a charlatan. He's a man who makes somewhere up near, at the time that I researched it, $45 million a year for standing in a place where thousands of people are packed, telling them self-help hints for today. but that you're a sinner and you need to repent and look to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And if you do not do it, you're on your way to hell. You're on the broad road that leads to destruction. And I plead with you, be reconciled to God. He doesn't tell him that. Because out of the 45 million that he makes, he makes an additional 30 or 13 million just simply from TV viewers. Sending money to a heretic. Why? Because they know not the Word of God. The Word of God is profitable for our spiritual lives. It's instructive for us. It's beneficial. It's sufficient. It's all that we need. When you're going through difficulties in your life, where do you go? I bet you 90% of you do not first go to the Word of God, but run to some expert of the day. some Christian counselor to solve my problems. But you have all things that is necessary for life and godliness in the Word of God. It's all wrapped up in Jesus Christ. All the spiritual blessings are ours in Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1. You lack nothing, beloved. You don't need more. You just simply need to appropriate what has been given to you. teacher goes to the school for the first time. He comes home with his white shirt, and his arm is all black underneath on the forearm. And his wife looks at him and says, what's that all about? And he said, well, I had to erase the whiteboard, and so I used my sleeve. So as a good wife, she went to work with him the next day. And she got to his desk, and she opened up drawers that he didn't open up. And she said, here are your pens. Here are your erasers. Here is the chalkboard eraser. Here is the ruler. Here is the seating chart. Here is everything that you need. And yet, because he did not open up the drawers and appropriate what was already his, he acted like a fool, didn't he? The Word of God is sufficient for all of your needs. You notice when Jesus was struggling in the garden, what did he do? He went to his father in prayer. When David is downcast, he speaks the word of God to his soul. Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. Again, Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. It's the word that we need. We need to be immersed in the Word, letting it dwell in us richly to teach us how to deal with the difficulties of life. It's profitable for that. It's sufficient for that, the Apostle Paul says. Notice again, for doctrine, for teaching, for instruction. This is the doctrine that you need to be instructed with. How about the mindless Christians who say nonsense statements like this? We're not about doctrine. If you're not about doctrine, you're not about Jesus. Because Jesus came to give us His doctrine. The teaching, it comes from Him. And that's what we need. That specific portions of doctrine to deal with the difficult areas of your life. To reveal, to open up, to dissect. To speak to your soul. To heal, to correct. That's what doctrine does. He says, for reproof. That reproof is a conviction. People aren't doing what they're called to do. They need reproof. Reproof from the Word. Okay? So when you're not doing what you're called to do, you ought to be reproved by your pastor and elders. That's what the Word of God is for. Not his opinion, but what the Word says. It's inspired by God for that purpose. He goes on and he says, it's for correction. The Greek term there has to do with straightening. It corrects something. When a child is born and the teeth grow in, they grow crooked or buck teeth, and what do they do? The parents get braces. Where do they go for braces? An orthodontist. The doctrine is orthodox, it's straight. It straightens up the teeth is what braces do from an orthodontist. An orthopedic surgeon, he's straightening up bones. That's what the word of God, it straightens, it corrects our lives and enables us to stand up. It's useful, it's profitable for instruction, for education in righteousness. How do I live a righteous life? Have you ever asked that question to anybody? Have you ever said, how can I be more holy in my life? How can I be more righteous? Not self-righteous, righteous in my life. How can I be a person who righteously lives more and more for the glory of God? Righteousness is doing the right thing. And this is what the Word does for us. It teaches us the right thing. teaches us how to live, not what the world says, but what the word says. When is a marriage dissolved? The scriptures teach that the marriage is dissolved at death. So you have a man who has a wife, they're married for 25 years, She dies, and he gets married two weeks later. What do you say? What's the thought that goes on in your mind? Oh, he must have been cheating on her. That's wretched that she's not even cold yet, and he's already getting married again. And that's cultural conformity, because the scripture says, at death, that partner is then free to marry another only in the Lord. Now, are we conformed to the culture or to scripture? The Word of God teaches us what's right. And it teaches us so that the man of God, notice, may be equipped, may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good works. The Word of God prepares us to walk in the way, to walk in wisdom's way. Wisdom is a righteous application of knowledge. Knowledge comes from the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, the reverence of the Lord, the bowing to the Lord. It's a filial reverence. It's a reverence of fear of offending the God who has redeemed us through His Son. That's the beginning of wisdom, is one who bows to the Word of God. That's how you show yourself to be one who fears God. You bow to His Word. It teaches us to be fully equipped, to be prepared, to give us everything that is necessary to live a life of godliness for the glory of God. This word, beloved, prepares you. It comes from God to transform your life through the preaching, the teaching, and the reading of it. Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, thou art mine. Is it your precious treasure? That's why Paul told Timothy regarding what goes on with the work of the word and the life of the Christian, transforming our lives. He is charged then to preach that word. You ought to be appalled. When you come on the Lord's Day, if you don't get the preaching of God's Word, you ought to be outraged. You ought to be angry. You have every right to be angry when you show up on the Lord's Day and you don't hear a word from the Lord. Because the charge of the pastor is to preach the Word. So what He says, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead as appearing in His kingdom. Think about that. Timothy, God sees you. God knows you. He knows you intimately. He knows what your calling is. He's called you to that work. Preach the Word. Not your thoughts, not your feelings, not your emotions, not what people want to hear. You preach My Word to My people. That's authoritative preaching, isn't it? And as you, as the people of God, demonstrate yourself to be the people of God, by obedience to the Word of God, the pastor shows himself to be called by God, obedient to God as sheep of his pasture, by preaching what God has given. Preach the Word. It's an authoritative declaration of God's Word. Thus saith the Lord. It's a herald, Caruso, that's what it means. He heralds the word of God. The time of Nebuchadnezzar, he put up a statue. And in that statue, he wanted everybody to bow down and worship him. And he gave people that went around his kingdom and declared at the sound of the lute, and the harp, and the psaltery, and all the little instruments there. When you hear them, bow down and worship the statue. And Daniel wouldn't do it, and neither would his friends. So you know that Daniel's three friends were thrown into the fire. Daniel was eventually thrown into a lion's den. The Lord cared for them and preserved their life. But the point was that that herald went around and all he did was give the message of the king. If he didn't give the message of the king, he was an unfaithful messenger who was then to be removed by taking off his head. Only if that would be done in our day. that all those unfaithful messengers that are out there proclaiming not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Paul says in Galatians 1 that there is another gospel that men preach, which is not another. You will never be saved, beloved, because you are a member of Hope Reform Church. Did anybody miss that? You will not be saved because you're a member of Hope Reform Church. Let's get even closer. Closer to the heart. You won't be saved because you were baptized as an infant in Hope Reform Church by so-and-so pastor. You're not going to be saved because you were catechized in the faith through your youth. And you stood up here and you confessed your faith that you were a believer. You're not saved because you did those things. You're not saved because you take the Lord's Supper. You're saved by Jesus Christ or you're not saved at all. You're redeemed by Him, by a faith that's God-given, worked into you, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Word, that you would then turn your eyes to Jesus, and look upon Him, and follow after Him. Faith doesn't even save you. Yeah, I said it. What do they say? You heard it here first. Faith does not save you. Don't put your faith in your faith. If your faith is God brought, it turns your eyes to Christ. You are saved by Christ. faith simply keeps you united to the benefits of Jesus Christ to him. And when you are united to him, you receive all of his benefits, and faith unite you to him, but it has no power to save you. Christ saves you. You look out at these trains under these railroad tracks, and they have long cars following them. All the power is in the engine. Without the engine, all the cars sit. And they are united to that engine by a coupling. And a coupling doesn't have any power in and of itself. All the power is in the engine. And once it's connected to the engine, it goes wherever the engine goes. Paul's call to Timothy was to preach this word. The infallible, inerrant, inspired word of the true and living God. He is to preach that and none other because as it is in truth the word of God. And anytime that a man does not preach the word of God, he is setting himself up over above God. He is making an idol of himself. So Paul says, that's the charge, Timothy. Your responsibility, beloved, is to come with all ears, with hearts wide open to receive God's word. To say, as Samuel said, speak Lord, your servant hears you. Speak to my soul. That means you need to be prepared as you come on the Lord's day. No more Saturday night, two, three o'clock in the morning adventures, coming here with bloodshot eyes, not prepared to hear a word from God. But preparing your minds to receive God's Word, to embrace God's Word, to live God's Word. And the responsibility of the pastor is to make sure that he brings God's Word for that reason. It's food for the soul. It prepares us, as Paul says, to make us wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And every time in his life, Preacher simply preaches. Come to a funeral, you preach the word, the gospel, the good news, salvation in Christ. Life and death and everything in between is about Jesus Christ. It's for him we live, it's for him we die, and it's in him we live and move and have our being. It's all about him. And so, I close with this question one more time. Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, thou art mine. How precious is this book to your soul, beloved? Do you teach it to husbands, to your wives? Do you wash them with the water of the word? Do you train up your children in the word of God? You promised, you vowed to, teach them how to pray, teach them how to worship, how to hear the word of God, how to listen for the voice of truth. We ought to because this is the word of the true and living God. Amen. Shall we pray?