Turn for our Bible reading now to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Reading the first nine verses. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. For no man that woreth and tangleth himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. The husbandmen that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. But the word of God is not bound." Let's bow, please, in prayer. Father, we pray now that as we have read the Scripture that it would be reinforced into our hearts. We pray that all distractions will be taken from us. We ask, Father, for special grace to speak the Word and special grace for the hearers to receive it. Lord, help us to be strong in Thyself. Watch over us now. Bless us in the Savior's worthy name, I pray. Amen. As we have already read from Hebrews 4, verse 12 is a mighty scripture that says the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder between soul and spirit. and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the power of God's Word. And then here in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 9, Paul says, but the Word of God is not bound. He was in bondage. when he wrote this word. And certainly the illustration that Paul brought to the forefront was, these hands can be tied, these feet can be bound in fetters, but the Word of God that we boldly proclaim cannot be bound. Though men will try, though churches and institutions will do their best, yet the Lord has promised to us His Word will remain. In this service this morning, I want us to think about one of the great teachings that was drawn from the Protestant Reformation, and that is the Bible alone. Sola Scriptura. The Bible that cannot be bound. You know, when we think about the word Protestant Reformation, it excites a wide range of responses. Some people look upon it as being an academic, cultural, and somewhat spiritual movement of the 16th century. And yet, to those of us who understand it in a biblical and spiritual impact, it was a great work of grace a work done by the providence of God to restore the Bible into the hands of the common people, the ordinary person. It gave them an opportunity to read the Scripture and then to interpret the Bible for themselves, and the result of that was monumental. Because when the Bible was brought into the hands of the common person, and not filtered through the priest or the bishop, and that God's Word was in the hands of the people, the masses, it brought to them the light of God's truth. And it brought them spiritual freedom. And they who were under the bondage of medieval Rome at that time, gave them a degree of political freedom. That was a consequence. But what it did give for them was spiritual freedom. Their eyes were open to see, and that word spread across Europe and indeed for the world. Today I do not shrink from calling myself a Protestant, but I hasten to add that neither do I boast in such a tag. And the reason for that is that names and slogans can at the same time carry good and bad baggage. When I call myself a biblical Protestant, I mean that all that was brought to the surface by the spiritual awakening of God in the 16th century, all of those things are good. that God brought again to the surface. And in those things we are to rejoice, because it brought back the authority of the written Word of God. It must be said that not all that the Reformers did could be supported. It's not the first time that I have said that from this pulpit, and it's important to be reminded of. And why do I do that? Because there were excesses that were taken by Reformers, Luther included, going to some extremes one way or perhaps going in another direction. But what we have to remember is that these were men of the time and the era in which they were living. And you must assess a man or judge a man in the context of that particular era and of the light that they had received from God at that time. Let me give you a little background. What was it like in the pre-Reformation days? You see, prior to that time, the papacy was deeply involved in the political life of Western Europe. And the resulting intrigue of this political involvement that they had there also, of course, them controlling the church. They had wealth and they had power. And according to one historian in his book on the Reformation, he wrote this, the clergy from the bishops downward were failing in their duty. Educated people disliked the superstitions connected with the pilgrimages, indulgences, and other practices. And the restrictions on Bible reading were resented. Besides this, the corruption of the priests and their lust for pleasure was only exceeded in their ignorance of the Bible. I've already mentioned to you how that God raised up a very unknown and simple monk by the name of Martin Luther, and as he compiled his 95 arguments against these papal indulgences, what it did, it caused a storm. Because not long after that had been posted, Pope Leo X received a copy of this because there was a stir that was happening around Wittenberg, and it spread through another of the cities in Germany. Luther was commissioned, he was told, you must come to the City of Worms to give account for what you have written and what you have said. And so Luther went there, promised that he would be given a safe arrival and a safe ride back home again, safe conduct. And when he went there, he was told, you must recant of all you have written and said about these things. Luther said, I cannot recant of these things if they are in accordance to the Word of God. He said, my conscience is bound by that. I have come to see that the Bible is my supreme authority. It's a supreme authority in my life and what I think and how I react and what I do. He said, I cannot rescind what I have written unless I can be proved wrong by the Bible. Luther said, I stand here, and I can do no other, God helping me. Because Luther stood that time upon God's holy word. Now, he was not the first Reformer who stood against Rome, but it seemed that his action, it cut deep. It cut very deep at the theological root of Rome. It cut deep at this question, how does a person get to heaven? How does a common person make their journey from earth and come to see God? That important question is what the Church of Rome had covered over for centuries, and they are still covering over that question today. Make no mistake about it. How can a person get to heaven? And what God did through these Reformers, Luther and many others, was to bring again the truth that salvation is by the free grace of God. Salvation is by God's sovereign mercy. And it's not in what I do, it is what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. And that is my only warrant. I am a sinner before God, and Christ has died to save me, and that is my entrance into heaven by simple faith in that finished work of Jesus." That is the Protestant message. That is not the message of Rome then or today, my friend. But you see, when the Holy Spirit had come to Luther before he even nailed his 95 reasons to that church door, Luther had been plagued by great guilt, and he couldn't get away from it. He knew he was a sinner, but he was confronted with this great problem. I bow before a God who is great, who is almighty, who is pristine in His holiness, who has such a high standard of holiness, I could never get to it. And so Luther felt, how am I going to get rid of my guilt? And so he would go to his cell in the monastery, he would beat himself, and at points he would beat himself unconscious. And people would come in and they would find him there unconscious. Luther, Martin, what are you doing? And as he would come around, he would say, I'm trying to get rid of this guilt. I know I have sinned and offended a God in heaven, and he requires of me perfect righteousness. And how am I going to get there? But as he cried out to God for mercy, the Lord showed him that it's not your working, Martin. It's not your doing. It's not your beating of yourself. A man cannot be saved by any works that he does. A man can only be saved by faith in Jesus alone. The just shall live by faith. And that was the message that God brought to the heart of this man. And as Luther began to grow in grace and develop, he realized that the whole theological system of Romanism was rotten to the core because it was based on a wrong foundation, from the writings of the fathers to the decrees to everything else. And so he realized that God was raising him up to be a light, to shine. You see, whenever the Word of God is taken away or it is covered over or simply ignored by a lack of emphasis, there will be a dark cloud, a dark cloud that will cover the work and the witness of the Lord Jesus. And that had happened for centuries, it seemed, apart from little remnants, little pockets, that God had kept His Word alive. You see, the church at that time claimed to be supreme in all matters of religious and political authority. It claimed to be authoritative in all things, and it suppressed the Scriptures. In fact, it had outlawed them. You were not allowed to own a Bible if you were a common person. In 1229, at the Council of Toulouse, it was banned the possession of the Bible by the common person. And so that move of taking the Bible out of the hands of the people, it just brought more darkness. More anxiety. You know, beyond any doubt, it is the fact that you and I today have the Word of God in our own hands. It's the great legacy of this period of time. And it meant light and liberty for Europe, and for England, and for the Western world. Because along with the Bible in the hands of the people, it came the access to the very mind of God. It came the access that people had to understand what Jesus had really done for them, and that they could come directly to God through Jesus Christ, and not through any other way, not a priest or anything else. This was the liberty of the light of God's holy truth. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And so Luther said, one thing and one thing alone is necessary for life justification and Christian liberty, and that is the most holy word of God, the gospel of Christ. God had allowed him to rediscover the true Christianity of the Bible. And he said that justification was by faith alone in the Lord. He talked about the priesthood of all believers, not the priesthood of a certain section, but every single person born again of the Spirit of God is indeed a priest to the Lord, to represent God to men and men to God. He talked about the sole authority of the Bible and the right of every Christian to read the Bible for himself. Hence, we get that name and that phrase, sola scriptura, the Bible alone. You know, much blessing has come to us via the Protestant Reformation, both in truth and political freedom. And those who are true believers, well, we love both. We love the fact that we have the Scripture in our own hands, and we love the fact that we have a degree of political freedom. But the recovery of the Bible to the common man is the greatest of that mighty legacy that we have today, the written Word of God. And I want us to think this morning on this great truth and consider, first of all, that the Bible alone is alive. It is quick, as Hebrews 4.12 tells us. It is living. It is the living and incorruptible seed. You see, the Bible is like no other book that we have in the world. It is unique in its very origin, for it claims to be the message from heaven, the message from God. It was written over a period of 1,500 years and by over 40 authors that God had inspired to write His Holy Word. It's the oldest written record known to mankind. There is more literary evidence to support and substantiate the Scripture than any other writing known to man. As far as historical accuracy, when you think about the Word of God, it talks about people, cultures, nations, places. There have been new archaeological discoveries in the recent years, and every time they seem to unearth something, they come to find that what the Bible had written about a civilization they thought never existed, they discover something that proves the authority and historical accuracy of the Word of God. But when we think about that, the Bible is not intended to be a history book. It's not intended to be a science text or a geographical journal. It is the living message of God. And yet it shows this, how history and science and geography and all nature point to a sovereign Lord of heaven and earth who has provided the way for a sinful man to be reconciled to God. That's you and me today. The Lord's Word has shown us that by the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, we have life from the dead. This book is historically accurate. And my friend, it is also shown to be God's holy Word that cannot be bound by the effect it has upon humanity. No other book has had such impact on nations and individuals. This country of Canada, it was founded upon the Bible as its authority. The very Scriptures are engraved, inscribed in the halls of our Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Have you stopped to consider that the legal system that we have in Canada is based upon the authority of God's Word, and that every time a person goes to the witness box, they are said to hold the Bible, or in these later days, some other sacred Scripture that they hold to. But for many years it was, take the Bible in your right hand and repeat after me. Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Our legal system held up the Word of God, the Bible, as being something that you take in your hand and you swear, I will be truthful based upon what this Word stands for and the God who has given us this Word, the nation of Canada. Have we been as active as we should be as Christians in praying for our nation? Have we been as diligent to pray that this holy Word of God will be implanted in the minds of our politicians? Because it seems today that by far and wide, politicians, whether it's municipal, provincial, or federal, have no thought of God's Word whatsoever. Does the Lord hold us somewhat accountable for not praying for those that are in authority over us, and praying that God's truth would govern their thinking and would keep them, even if they are not Christians, that would keep them from going down a road of disaster and destruction. My friend, the effect that this book has had upon humanity cannot be told by human words. because it is God's divine truth. But having said that, we also know that this book has been attacked more than any other volume in the history of man. And why is that? It has been questioned. It has been forbidden. It has been ridiculed and defaced, it has been burned and altered and hidden, and yet it is still with us today. Why? Because it is God's inspired and holy and infallible and inerrant Word. And as we stand upon God's holy Word today, it will be attacked. It's going to continue to be attacked, and people will stand up and mock. Oh, you're a Bible-believing Christian. You're so foolish you believe that Noah was swallowed by a big fish, and they'll go on and on and on, and they laugh and mock. Psalm 2 says, "...he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." Because every man who mocks God's Word Every man who ridicules and sets it aside will one day come to stand before a holy God and give account of this very Scripture that has been rejected. The Word of God is alive. And it cannot be bound because it is God's breathed-out Word. 2 Timothy 3.16 tells us all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That means it has been breathed from the Lord Himself. Moses received from God the lively or the living oracles. The Savior said that the words he spoke were spirit and life. And Peter commented, we are not born again of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. My friend, let me ask you today, what is your attitude towards God's living word? Can you say, I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. Oh, how I love the law of the Lord. It is alive. It cannot be bound. But please notice with me, secondly, it is also described as being powerful. Alive and powerful, it cannot be restrained. The Word of God shows itself powerful. How does it do this? Well, let's look at a couple of simple examples. It does so by convicting people of their sin. The Holy Spirit takes the Word and He reveals to our minds that we have sinned. And it sweeps away what the Old Testament writers said, sweeps away the refuge of lies. People build up all kinds of reasons and excuses why the Bible cannot be. Why God cannot be. Why man will be his own self-determining entity. He will make his own end to the final destination, whatever that be or wherever it will be. But the Lord says, the Word of God sweeps away the refuge of lies. It also reveals the depth of the wickedness of the heart, the total depravity of the human heart. And when a person comes to the Scripture, they see it as a mirror. And they look in the mirror, and they see the perfect rectitude of God. They see His holiness and purity. And then they look at the Scripture, and the Holy Spirit brings to their heart the conviction that, I am a sinner. But I'm not just a sinner. I am a great sinner. I am a sinner that has broken God's Holy Word, and I deserve a lost eternity. And the Holy Spirit uses the Word to convict me of my sin. And I learn that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, some can go through a charade of doing external religious things and good works to impress. But the Holy Spirit directs the Scripture like a laser beam to the heart. A man is left defenseless. He is left unable to escape the penetrating, the convicting power of God's Holy Word. My friend, I ask you today, have you felt the weight of that conviction upon your own spirit? Have you felt the weight of God's Word convincing you to flee from the wrath to come? To repent of your sin and cry out to Him, Lord, what must I do to be saved? The Word of God comes to us as a powerful tool and instrument in the hand of God. Because it is alive, because it is powerful, my friend, you are going to be confronted with it. And I know that many here who are saved by His grace, have already submitted your heart, and you indeed love this Word, it is to you the greatest truth and the greatest comfort to your soul. Yes, my friend, the Word of God is able, because it is powerful, to give light to that darkened soul. It brings conversion. Now, conversion is not changing your mind simply. Though conversion means going down a road one way, you're going away from God. You're continuing in your sin. And conversion is turning 180 degrees and going back the other direction. And that is not something that you do on your own, but it is God's Spirit that convicts you. And the power of God's Word, it brings light to a darkened soul. It gives you the life. The life of God breathed in you, and a man is converted. We have been given living faith, not dead works. but living faith. And that living faith is in Christ Jesus. And it's through the Scripture that we are presented with Christ being the Word, the incarnate Word. And He is revealed in the written Word that He was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He would come to suffer. on a cruel cross, to die, my friend, in your place, and to die for me, that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Search the Scriptures, John said in his epistle. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they, the Scriptures, are they which testify of me. They speak of Christ. The great subject of the Bible is the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. Paul said, I preach Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle John wrote, But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name. If all Scripture did, my friend, was to convince you of sin, then we would be condemned to hell for eternity. For by nature we are all the children of wrath, sinners beyond comprehension. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He hath loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and in sins, He hath quickened us together. For by grace are you saved." Dear friend, it is the mercy of a loving God that He has revealed His way of salvation to a lost world, and it is written in this book. Luther was at a point of despair. He found no answer for the guilt that he had in his heart. Until that one day, God brought him to stop fighting. to stop trying to mount your own righteousness, but to come and see that you are the sinner for whom Christ died. You know, it's one thing for us to admit and say, yes, Jesus died on the cross for sinful men. Jesus died on the cross for the world. Many people can acknowledge that. But my friend, how different it is to say that Jesus died on the cross for me and me alone. And then it comes to your heart, and you realize that the power of God's truth, it convicts us of our sin, but it brings us to conversion. Ah, but what does it do after that? It conforms us to the image of our blessed Lord and Savior. How are we to know the way to live? How are we to know how to map out our life? How are we to know what is right and wrong? Yes, I know the Holy Spirit has printed and established the Word of God in our heart in a consciousness, but the Word of God gives us specific detail. And that is a great tool. It's our guide in our life. And it conforms us. That Word is a lamp to our feet, a light unto our pathway, and it shows us who the Lord Jesus is. In fact, we see Him and know Him more perfectly and more clearly through the Bible than if we were to see Him in person with our own eyes. Yes, my friend, this was An anonymous description of the Bible written by a few years back. It says this, Christ is the grand subject of the Bible. Our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, guide the feet. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, a river of pleasure. It is given in life, will be opened in judgment, and remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its holy contents. The Bible is unique. It is alive. It is powerful. David said in Psalm 19, 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 commandments of the Lord are 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 is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. The Word of God is powerful in that it convicts, converts, conforms us to the image of Christ, and it gives us comfort, comfort to the weary. And I know that many of you have proved this. Indeed, every believer has proved the comfort of God's Word to their own heart. When we think about God's truth, We are told in Hebrews 4 that it is sharper than any two-edged sword. The parallel, the illustration is given for us. It's repeated again in Ephesians 6 because it's called there clearly the sword of the Spirit. And in Revelation 1, verse 16, we're told that a sharp two-edged sword proceeds out of the mouth of Christ. In the highlighting of God's Word dividing, between the soul and the spirit. In other words, God's Word is able to show the motive of the heart, to show the intent of what is going on inside us. And when no one else can do that, we come alone before God and we get before His Word, and we find the Scripture comes to us with power to divide things that seem to be indivisible. to show us things about ourselves that our minds seem to be closed to. That's the power of God's Word, and when we as His people come to submit ourselves to it, we rejoice in all that it is, and in all that it does for us. You know, the Scripture is not like a chainsaw. A chainsaw cuts things very quickly, but a chainsaw makes a mess. It tears and it rips. and it's very hard to cut a straight line with a chainsaw. It's like a surgeon's scalpel, and the Word is able to very carefully both cut in order to heal. And we have been on the receiving end of that. And my dear friend, if you're a young Christian, if you're saved not too many years yet, the closer you come to the Lord, the more He reveals yourself, your nature, your heart, And the more he uses his word to be that scalpel to do that very fine, detailed work that is necessary, he cuts away the old that he might allow the new to grow. And so Paul said, I die daily unto myself that I might live unto righteousness. Scriptures cannot be bound. They can't be tied up. The word bound in 2 Timothy 2.9, it says, it means it cannot be restrained or kept down or tied up. I've said to you before, and it's an amusing quotation given by Mr. Spurgeon, when someone asked him, Mr. Spurgeon, how would you defend the Bible? And he said, I would defend the Bible like I would defend a lion. I would open the cage and let it out. and true words. Yes, the Christian can be bound. We can be held up ourselves as the Apostle was restrained, as Christians today in this generation are restrained because of their testimony for Christ. But the Word of the Lord liveth and abideth forever. And that Word cannot be bound. The Scripture is a lion that will do its own defending. When our mind has been set free, and our soul has been released from the chains that have held us captive, and we have been saved by God's grace, we are called to work and to serve in His Kingdom, to see the Church of Christ built and the Kingdom of the Lord extended. And that's what I want to do. And believer, I know in your heart you love the Lord. That's exactly what you want to do. You want the Lord's Word to be in you. You want His Word to be powerful in you. Yes, we know that it can be covered up in a surface way, as Rome tried to do before the Reformation, as it still tries to do today. But there were pockets of believers then, and there are still believers today that hold up the truth of this Holy Scripture. And once again, we know that it cannot be bound. But I wonder, How is it possible for the Scripture to be tied up in your life, in my life? How is that possible? I believe it's possible because when we have this Word in our hand, and yet we neglect it, we set it aside. How many, if it would be truly known, close the Bible after Sunday service, and it remains closed for the whole week at home, and it's never opened? Never read. My dear friend, if we neglect God's Holy Word, in one sense, that becomes bound to us. It doesn't have the liberty in our lives. But there's another way it can be bound. What about when we disobey its words? When we know the Spirit of God is convicting us through the Scripture of something, and it's clearly written in the Bible, and yet we choose for our own ends, our own purpose or motive, we go a different direction. We have examples of that in the Bible itself. We have examples of servants, of Jonah, who did that very thing. But my friend, if we disobey God's Word, we cannot expect His blessing. And what we are doing, we are purposely binding the Word of God ourselves. We're tying it up. And it may be by a misapplication of its teaching. That could be by ignorance, a lack of study, by influences that you've received from outside sources. It may be that you're applying those things to the Bible and you're misapplying it. Those things can happen. In a sense, we can bind the Word of God. So how can we be sure that the Word of God is not bound in our life? This is important. First of all, by prayerful reading and study. And I say by prayerful reading. It is by seeking for the light of the Holy Spirit to help you understand the Bible, by prayerful reading and study, by memorization of its truth. Oftentimes people say, yes, I know that verse of Scripture. It's somewhere. I could even point it to you maybe on the page of my Bible, but I have no idea where it's found and I have no idea the reference. Well, It's an important thing, if you're going to study the Lord's Word, to know about the Scripture, to commit it to your own heart, and by humble obedience to pray that God would teach us to follow in that way. By praying also that we will see more of our Lord and Savior on every page. It is written in Psalm 40, verse 7, as well as in the book of Hebrews. In the volume of the book, it is written of me, Jesus said. So from every page of Scripture, we find that the Savior is revealed to us. And I want to know more of that because His purpose in my life is that I will be conformed to Him. I'll be changed into His image. We have many copies of Scripture today. You know, before the Reformation, they didn't have any copies, hardly. But now we have many, don't we? In every form, in every type of media, we have it. Are we any better educated in the Bible? Is there more spirituality today than there was a hundred years ago? I would say, friend, we have to be careful about this. We need to pray that God will make us more and more in the image of our Savior, that we might be a representative of Him, an ambassador for the Savior to share with our neighbors and our co-workers and our family the things of Christ. My dear friends, heaven and earth will pass away, but the Lord Jesus said, my words shall not pass away. His Word is alive and powerful. The Word of God cannot be bound. May the Lord bless His truth to our hearts this morning. Let's bow, please, in prayer. Lord, in the quiet moments of our service, as we bring this to a close, we ask for the Spirit of God to move in the hearts of those who are still unsaved. Speak to them, Lord, we pray, with that powerful voice that can awaken the dead. Lord, we ask that each of us, as your children, would walk in the light of Thy holy truth. Keep us, we pray, from wandering away. Keep us from being confused. Keep us from neglect. Keep us from binding the Scriptures ourselves, but rather let it have free course and be glorified in our lives. Hear this, our prayer today. Part us now in Thy fear. And with Thy rich blessing, we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen.