Well, let's pray, ask for the Lord to bless our time, and then we'll turn to 2 Timothy 3 and read and teach it together. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, again, we thank you for each person here tonight gathered as Christ Fellowship Bible Church. We thank you for the promises of Matthew 18. that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, there you are, oh God, in our midst, in all of nature of ministry. And we thank you that even here tonight, we know that you are with us when we are on our own, and you're with us when we are with our families. But Lord, we know that there's a special way in which you dwell with your people, the body of Christ, with Jesus as our head. And so we have come together to read your word and to study your word and to focus on your word, Lord, to be fed by your word. Father, we live in such a day and Lord, we have our own hearts where we are so easily swayed and our eyes are taken off of scripture and off of truth. And they're put on the things of this world and how that can lead to so many dangerous paths from there. We pray that you would Reorient us, refocus us tonight upon the truth of your perfect and God-given Word. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you've not turned so, turn to 2 Timothy 3, and I want to read the end of 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. No doubt these are familiar verses and I hope that they are much more familiar verses as we go through them tonight and in coming months. I want to teach tonight on these verses, a little message that I've entitled, All Counseling is Theological. That's a deliberate title. All Counseling is Theological. We want to lay the foundation of the authoritative and sufficient Word of God for all of life's issues. Follow with me as I read our text in your own copy of God's Word, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work. I want to tell you the story about a man named Dr. Chris Thurman. Dr. Chris Thurman was a licensed psychologist and a popular speaker years ago. He wrote a book that he titled self-help or self-destruction. In that book, he shares very candidly, very openly about his own struggles that he faced in his attempts as a fairly new believer and as a growing believer, a maturing believer, where he tried to balance biblical truth with worldly popular psychology. He tried to bring them together and he writes about the struggles that he had in doing that. As his own understanding of God's word increased, he became less confident in many of the concepts, the ideologies, the terms that he had learned in all of the years of clinical training. He testified bluntly in his own writings. He said, it wasn't until I had been out of school for a number of years that it began to dawn on me that some, maybe a lot of what I have been taught is just simply not valid. in his book, he attacks 10 pop psychology myths that could destroy your life. Each of them, he says, are unbiblical and therefore they are untrue. And when I came across it, I jotted it down and I've, I've pasted it there on your outline because these are myths of modern psychology movement that it advocates. And these 10 statements are contrary to God's word, but listen to what they are. Number one, the first myth of modern psychology is that people are basically good. Nothing else needs to be said. We see it all around us. It's everywhere from movies to music, to social media, to you're good. You're basically good. Number two, you need more self esteem and self worth. Number three, You cannot love others until you love yourself. So you need to love yourself first, then you'll love others. And then third, you love God. If your worldview has a category for God. Fourth, you should not judge anyone at all. Fifth, all guilt is bad. Number six, you need to think more positively. Number seven, staying in love is the key to a great relationship. Number eight, you have unlimited power and potential within yourself. Number nine, your happiness is the most important thing. And number 10, God can be anything you want him to be. Well, you say, well, in a book that was published in the not-too-distant past, you say, well, look, that's our society, that's our culture, but that's nothing new. That's been around for a long, long time. In fact, you and I know that some of the basic tenets of the modern psychology movement, really, you could go back to Sigmund Freud in the 19th century, kind of the father of modern psychology, even before him with the Enlightenment, 1700s, 1800s. Here are a handful of the key tenets of psychology. This is psychology 101. Human nature is basically good. Number two, people have the answers to their problems inside of themselves. Number three, the key to understanding and correcting a person's attitudes and actions lies somewhere in the past. Number four, individual's problems are the result of what somebody else has done to you. 5. Human problems can be purely psychological in nature, unrelated to any spiritual or physical condition. 6. Deep-seated problems can be solved only by professional counselors using therapy. What, what Dr. Curtis Thurman is wanting to, Chris Thurman is wanting to show is that, is that these main tenets of psychology are antithetical to scripture. What so many people are taught in our day, what so many collegians are taught when they go into a college and they major in psychology, they are learning, they're getting a worldview that is completely at odds with scripture. our world and our culture is attempting to run the marathon to try to get to the finish line and get that goal of self-fulfillment, of self-happiness, of self-love, of self-esteem. And what I want to do tonight is I want to show that the foundations of secular therapies. That is the foundation of secular counseling methods are groundless. They are baseless and they are opposite to God and they are opposite to theological truth. Now that doesn't mean that they can't make good observations. That doesn't mean that worldly psychology and therapists and psychologists can't make good observations and many times accurate observations. But what we want to do tonight is we want to go to the word of God and understand what God says in his word about true and real change so that we can lay the foundation for this course in the four o'clock family Bible hour on biblical counseling. Now, to begin, before we come to our text right here, your outline has this little phrase about biblical counseling. All biblical counseling is, is biblical counseling is offering hope to people who are battling with real life issues. It's offering hope to people with real life issues. Deep, real, lasting, spiritual hope that comes from God and comes from scripture. True biblical counseling is always in the context of the church. It's always for the holiness of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit, utilizing the sufficiency of the Word of God and for the glory of God, the Savior. When we come to deal with life's issues, we are not naive or we're not presenting an overly simplistic, here's a proverb, memorize it and it'll make your life happier and better. That's not what biblical counseling is. Biblical counseling is a very robust confidence in the power of God's word with a true and an ongoing trust in the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of the local church to bring about change, endurance, perseverance, that doesn't always mean relief. It doesn't always mean the situation, the problem, the trial will go away. But what it means is how can you, as a sufferer, as a counselee, how can you cope through life's troubles in a way where you're pleasing God? where you're glorifying God, where you're enduring in a way where you're trusting in the Lord and you're growing in conformity. to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Bible is central to that. The word of God is central. Now you have at the bottom of page one, there are a lot of little check marks about the purpose of the word of God. It is foundational for biblical counseling. It's not a supplementary book. It is foundational. Number two, it is expounded in biblical counseling. We explain the meaning of the text. Third, it is authoritative in biblical counseling. If, if your attitudes need to change based upon what the Bible says, we need to change those attitudes because we submit to the authoritative word. The word is piercing. The Bible is like a surgical sharp knife that can probe heart deeply into the hearts of men. It is transforming. The word is applicational. The word is hope giving and the word is entirely sufficient. for biblical counseling. So again, what I want to do is I want to draw your attention tonight as men and women in the context of our local church, we ourselves, if you're not dealing with the real life struggle right now, no doubt you're rubbing shoulders with people who are. And if you're not coping your way through a trial by relying on God, you can come alongside of others in the church context who are. And that's what we want to do tonight. Where do we find hope? Where do we find help? What if I'm not the clinically trained professional? What if I'm not certified with the state? What if I don't have the degrees? I don't have the med school training. I don't have all the scientific knowledge. I don't have the degrees and the terms. We live in a day where that professionalism mentality says, well, then you're of no use. But the Bible would speak the exact opposite. that every Christian is filled with all knowledge and all goodness and we are able to admonish or counsel one another. that we are to let the word of God richly dwell within us so that we can admonish, teach, counsel, warn, instruct one another. That's what we're called to do as Christians in the context of the local church. So let's lay the foundation for biblical counseling right here in our text. And right in verses 16 and 17 of 2 Timothy 3, you need to understand in Paul's argument in this book, these verses are abrupt. They're abrupt because these verses begin with no conjunction, with no connecting particle. There's no and, there's no but, there's no therefore, there's no so that. It's just sort of like, it's kind of like dropped like a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky Paul's argument in the book is that Timothy, this young pastor needs to be bold. He needs to be courageous and he needs to pastor the church, holding on to true doctrine and refusing bad doctrine. But chapter three tells us society is going to get really bad. In the last times, last days, difficult times will come. Men will be lovers of The way the Hebrew mind worked is when you had a long list of virtues or vices Often the first one was kind of the umbrella and all the rest of the list sort of fleshed out that first one the fruit of the Spirit is Love and then everything else kind of fleshes that out well right here that in the last days Difficult times will come men will be lovers of self and everything that he's gonna say is gonna flesh that out We live in that day our society is like cheerleading this great need for people to be self-lovers. That's what our culture is saying. And Paul's gonna say, in that kind of culture, you need to stand firm, not upon what people tell you, not upon what people suggest, not upon majority opinion, you need to stand upon your Bible. So tonight, I want to give you two simple headings. Number one, your Bible is divinely inspired. And number two, your Bible is totally There's nothing new. I'm not going to give you any new theology that you've not heard before. I'm not going to lead you down some path where you're going to be wowed theologically that I never heard of that. I'm going to take you to the word of God so you can be reminded as to the character and nature of the book that God has given to us. So number one, your Bible is divinely inspired. It's good for us. Even, even boys and girls, even for all of us to be reminded, there's no shortage of books in our day. Self-help books, leadership books, how to be happy, how to be rich, how to be prosperous, how to be successful, how to be filled. But there's only one book that God has written. And there's only one book that never grows old. It never grows outdated. It never needs to be revised. It never needs to be updated. It will never grow irrelevant. And that is the Bible. Look with me at verse 16. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. We look first. Your Bible is divinely inspired. That means it's supernaturally given. Your Bible is supernaturally given. I love how some of the English translations have it well. All Scripture is breathed out by God. It's God breathed. That's the idea of the language. It points to the supernatural origin of the Bible. that your scripture is a result of the action of God breathing. The Bible is an act of God communicating Himself. It's like every word in the Bible is like God breathing and communicating truth that comes from His own character and person. I love the way B.B. Warfield put it, the creative breath of God comes out in scripture. And that is to say the entirety of God's word, all scripture, the entirety of scripture comes from the mouth of God. All scripture is inspired by God. Now, if you're reading in the Greek, you would notice that it's every single scripture. It's singular. We have all scripture as if it was sort of a plural, but the idea is every single individual scripture is breathed out by God. Every single, now of course that points to the comprehensive whole, all of scripture is breathed out by God. But all of it comes from the very mouth of God. To read the Bible is to hear God speak. It is therefore true and your Bible can be totally trusted 100% of the time. I'm going to share in coming weeks in the four o'clock hour how so many medical school scholars, many scientists are now debating about the whole issue of mental illness. Well, you know how big that is in our day. Mental illness or depression or anxiety and so many of these common factors that we see all over society And they can't even agree on what they are and where they come from and how to treat them and whether they even exist in some cases, whatever the diagnosis might be. And yet we never have to doubt the Bible. We never have to be skeptical of the word of God. We don't need to debate about what the Bible says. We can come to the Bible and know that the Bible is from the very mouth of God. You know, Verse 16, all scripture is inspired by God. The Bible never becomes inspired. The Bible does not become powerful. The Bible does not become useful to someone. The Bible does not contain the word of God. It is the word of God. The Bible is inspired. The Bible is powerful. The Bible is useful. The Bible just is completely breathed out by God. We cannot rely on the doctrine of scripture until we are absolutely convinced that God is the author. Calvin had it right. He had it exactly right. You're never going to believe in the Bible. You're never going to trust in the Bible. You're never going to rely on the doctrine of the Bible until you are absolutely convinced that the one true and living God authored this book. But not only is your Bible supernaturally given, it's also specially useful. And I love how verse 16, it's one thing for God to just sort of give some book. But notice how verse 16 continues, and it's profitable. The word of God is profitable for four things, teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. I love that. Let your eye look at verse 16. The scriptures are profitable. They're beneficial. They're useful. They are for your good. It's advantageous for you to know your Bible. It'll never harm you. It'll always help you. It'll always bring about good benefits. It'll always yield a good result for you to know the Word of God. Well, what are the four uses? What are four particular benefits of the God-breathed word? Four of them. They are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training and righteousness. Let's go through these briefly. The Bible is most profitable, number one, for teaching. It's the word for doctrine. And we're in the context of a pastoral letter. How do you do church? How are you to run church? How are you to lead the church? How are you to shepherd the church? How are you to govern the church when you're dealing with sinners? and life issues and problems and trials and struggles. What do you do when all of these situations come up? And the first thing that Paul's going to say to Timothy is your Bible is profitable and useful for teaching and doctrine. Your theology and doctrine and truth comes from scripture. Number two, it also is useful for reproof. Reproof. Now, this is a word that means specifically you are to show error. You are to point out the error. You're to show where someone goes wrong with the word reproof. The word reproof is like putting the divine spotlight, the floodlight on the blackness of the human heart so that it becomes light, it becomes visible, and you can expose the sin with the power and the clarity of the word. But then with that, third, it's useful for correction. Not only do you show the sin, but now you've got to correct the conduct. And the idea here for correction in the third word here has to do with moral conduct, ethical conduct. That's kind of the emphasis here. It's on your behavior. It's not just showing, here's what you did wrong, but here's how you can make it right. Yes, here's where you erred. Here's where you strayed. Here's the sin of your heart. Here's where you've gone astray, but here's what you can do to make it right. And fourth, it is profitable for training in righteousness, instruction, like a parent developing character in a child, the ongoing pattern, the ongoing process of, of producing and training and working out godly conduct in someone. That's the idea of the Bible is useful for training, for character development, for maturing you. John Calvin said, scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit. John Stott puts it so well and summing up this verse, you see it in your outline there. This is a great quote. He said this, do we hope either in our own lives or in our teaching ministry to overcome error and grow in truth and to overcome evil and grow in holiness? then it is to scripture that we must turn for scripture is profitable for these things. Your Bible is divinely inspired. You know, what's remarkable to me is there is a Bible in the medical world. It's called in shorthand phrase, the DSM, the Diagnostic Manual for Mental Disorders and so on. That's their version of the Bible, their authoritative book. Every year or few years, there's a new edition that comes out with all kinds of new research and findings and hypotheses and definitions and how to treat certain things. It's just new. It's almost like you can't keep your finger on the pulse enough. It's like there's so many new things. but we can turn to God's word and we can know God's word and we can read God's word and we can hide God's word in our heart so that we can be equipped and be trained and be benefited. So number one, your Bible is divinely inspired, but, but number two, your Bible is totally, totally sufficient. There are some sweet Christians that would disagree with us here. But I think verse 17 kind of seals the deal on this reality that your Bible is totally sufficient. Now, just before we even get into verse 17, read with me in your outline, the quote. that MacArthur, I think, clearly says it well. He says, too many have bought the lie that a crucial realm of spiritual wisdom exists outside Scripture, and that some idea or technique or method or some help formula from that extra-biblical realm holds the real key to helping people with their problems. What do I do with that schizophrenic? What do I do with that bipolar guy? What do I do with this manic depressant person? What do I do with this adulterer? I'm not equipped. I'm not trained. I don't know where to go. And Christians have bought into this cultural lie that the Bible is helpful, but not sufficient. The Bible is beneficial, but not enough. And so we've got to go outside of the Bible to the professional. We've got to go to the therapist. We've got to go to the trained person to get the real help for the real big and complex problems of life. But wait a minute. 2 Peter 1 tells us that all we need for life and for godliness has been given to us. The Bible tells us that we have everything we need for life and godliness through the precious promises that God has given to us. We see in Psalm 19 the same thing. The man of God can be complete. There is joy that comes to his heart. You can have the fear of the Lord, and it all comes from the Word of God. Psalm 19. Okay. So, what's the benefit of Scripture? What does it do? How do we know that it's totally sufficient? Look with me at verse 17, so that the man of God, the scripture is inspired by God, it's profitable. Why? Verse 17, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. You know, you, you notice the purpose of scripture. I love that God has a purpose in giving us the Bible. You know, not just to sit on the coffee table, right? Not just to sit on the shelf. Not just to gather dust, of course. He gives his word not just to reveal himself, not just to regenerate sinners. God gives his word to renew you, to reform you, to remake you, to reconfigure you into the image of Jesus Christ. So yes, God has revealed himself. Yes, God regenerate sinners, but he's also changing us. He's molding and conforming us more into the image of Christ. There is a purpose for God's word. So that verse 17, the man of God. Now, who benefits from biblical counseling? Listen very carefully. This was drilled into me in my counseling and in my seminary days. I will never forget it because it was said so many times to me. All counseling is pre-counseling until the counselee is a Christian. In other words, you can't biblically counsel a non-Christian. Now, now you could give them some helpful principles and some helpful pointers and some biblical ideas, but, but really you could tell them how to have a better marriage, almost like, like put the tourniquet on, right? Save an immediate need, but there's something far greater. than just their marriage or getting over their depression or getting over their fear. There's something far greater and that's their relationship with God. And boom, you're evangelizing. And when God saves that person and they become a child of God, they have the Holy Spirit living in them. They're able to read and interpret and apply and live out the word of God. But a non-Christian can't do that. And so Paul's going to say, so that the man of God may be adequate. Well, Timothy is that man of God. He is the pastor. He is the leader. He needs to know you're the man of God and the Bible is what you need for life and for godliness and for ministry and for counseling. But for us as Christians, for you as a believer, for a child of God, you are equipped as a man of God, as a woman of God, as a child of God, Verse 17, that you may be adequate, adequate. The word in Greek means capable. It means proficient. Actually, I love this. I love how one dictionary said this word means you're able to meet all the needs required of you. So what does God require of you as a Christian? What does God call you to do? The Bible gives you everything you need to meet those needs. In other words, that the Bible is adequate, it's capable, it's proficient. Here's the stamp of authenticity to the doctrine of the sufficiency of the Bible. That the Bible is able to adequately equip a believer in living out the Christian life. As if Paul Couldn't state it any more emphatic end of verse 17 says the man of God may be adequate and then you have equipped or thoroughly equipped for Notice the singular every single good work What does God want you to do in life? What has God called you to as a believer? Every single thing that God wants you to do, he has given you the ability, he's given you the sufficiency in the word of God. That doesn't mean that we don't need the church, doesn't mean we don't need counselors, it doesn't mean that we don't need prayer, of course. But the word of God is what drives us. It's what makes us adequate to live out God's will. When you think about biblical counseling, maybe you can put your brain on two thoughts. Number one, the two hallmarks of counseling are the sufficiency of scripture and progressive sanctification. The Bible is enough and God is in a long, lifelong work. of making me more like Christ. And it'll never be perfect until I reach glory. But on the journey to glory, I want to be pleasing to God, even if it means suffering, hardship, pain. I love the way John Owen put it. The 17th century, you see this quote there in your outline. Owen said this scripture is sufficient with respect to the end of the revelation itself, sufficient under the end for which it is designed. That is sufficient to generate, cherish, increase, and preserve faith and love and reverence with holy obedience. in them in such a way and manner as will assuredly bring them under the end of all supernatural revelation in the enjoyment of God. The Bible is enough, not just to save you and to sanctify you, but for you to be brought into the enjoyment of God. If you like acronyms, maybe we can draw this to a little close with these final thoughts at the end. Biblical counseling involves, I think of it like power. It's helpful for me to remember this, power. When I think of biblical counseling, I think of P-O-W-E-R. P is prayer. Prayer. We are understanding that prayer is the mightiest weapon that we have as Christians. There's nothing in all the world that could even come close to the power of prayer because we have the ear of the almighty one who hears us when we as his children come to him and present our requests. Biblical counseling includes prayer, but number two, the O is ongoing relationships. Really, biblical counseling is just a fancy phrase for discipleship. That's really all it is. Don't think I've got to find a professional counselor and make an appointment and pay a lot of money and fill out a long form with my medical history. It could be that, I suppose, but biblical counseling is living life with Christians who are walking with you, bearing the burdens with you, and like Jonathan did to David, encouraging him in God. 1st Samuel 23. That's what it is. In times of hardship, when David was running from Saul, what does Jonathan do? He encouraged him in God. That's biblical counseling in ongoing relationships. Third, it includes the Word. The Word. The W is the Word. We need the Word. We cherish the Word. We memorize the Word. We love the Word. We trust in the Word. We want to live out the Word. E, energy. earnest diligence, exertion of diligence. It's like what the Lord Jesus said to bear fruit. It doesn't come easily. Holiness and godliness just doesn't come naturally. We can't coast. We've got to put off sin. We've got to put on godliness. We have to kill sin. We want to put on the deeds of the Spirit. And finally, Biblical counseling includes are the residing Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit. You and I could never do anything that would be pleasing to God if it were not for the indwelling Holy Spirit within us. Praise the Lord for the powerful divine God who lives within us, namely God the Holy Spirit. So tonight, I want you to know the Bible, the Bible is practical, the Bible is comprehensive, the Bible is trustworthy, and the Bible is totally adequate, totally adequate. So may you, as we in coming weeks, and we lay the foundation for biblical counseling, and we look at all the different issues in life that could come up, and what does the Bible say? Let's come back time and time and time again to these verses and say, Lord, thank you that you've given us your word. Thank you that you've clearly revealed who you are in scripture. Church family, this is why we preach the word so much. This is why we counsel the word so much. This is why we memorize the word. We speak the word. We read the word. We sing the word. We cherish the word. We trust the word. We want to apply the Word. We enjoy the Word. We study the Word because this book that you have in front of you is so powerful because it is the living, breathed out Word from Almighty God. As if to read, as if to say, when you open up your Bible tonight and tomorrow morning and the Bible in front of you now, Every word on every page is the very exhaling of God's very own mouth. Every word, every word is a word that is sourced from God. It comes from God. It is communicated by God. It's energized by God. So let's be encouraged in the word that is given. And let's be reminded that in this Word, God has revealed Himself, revealed who we are, and shown us the need that we have for a Savior. And that God has shown us the sufficient Savior who came to die for really bad, wretched sinners like us. And He is the Lord Jesus Christ. May we thank the Lord for the word that he has given and trust in his word. Amen. Amen. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the clarity of your word, the power of your word. Hear us as we pray to you. Oh God, we pray that you would meet with us, that you would encourage us, that you would edify us, that you would unify this church. that you would help us, oh God, to know your word more, to study your word more, to memorize your word, to apply it to our lives. God, use us so that we could take the powerful word of God and speak that truth into the lives of other people. And Spirit of God, would you use it in powerful ways in our lives and in the life of this church for the glory of Christ. Amen.