Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verses 3 through 7. This is the 15th in the series of sermons on women of faith. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Amen. Father, I thank you for your word, and I pray that you would enable me to faithfully preach it. Father, that we would be edified as we wrestle with the various texts we're going to look at this morning. Help us as a congregation to grow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, the passage that I just read was written in A.D. 65, that is 15 years after Paul first recruited Timothy in Acts chapter 16. And the question is, how old was Timothy? And there is a bit of debate on that. Many believe that he was in his mid-40s when Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy to him. I believe he was actually 39, almost 40. And in 2 Timothy, he was 40 years old. Now, obviously, those two positions come from two different presuppositions, both of which may be wrong. But let me share with you why most scholars who have looked at all of the evidence are 100% convinced that Timothy had to be somewhere between 39 and 45, somewhere in there when 1 and 2 Timothy were written. Some believe that he was ordained to the ministry in Acts 16, and based on Numbers chapter 4, quite a few verses in chapter 4 actually, and 1 Chronicles 23 verse 3, they state that he would therefore have been at least 30 years of age, and so 30 plus 15 equals 45, so that's where they get that. But there are several reasons that make it at least possible that Timothy was as young as 25 in Acts chapter 16. And I'll just give you two of the reasons for believing this. First, Numbers 8 verse 24 allowed apprentices to the office of eldership to begin their training and to be involved in ministry, including preaching, while they were going through that apprenticeship. That was at the age of 25. Timothy could have been older than that, but probably not younger. At age 25, they couldn't be ordained, but they could begin ministering and learning the ropes. And this is exactly the situation of Timothy. For the first five years, he's just on the team, working with Paul and the others as a support. And I believe it's not until later that he is ordained with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. So it is equally possible that in Acts 16, Timothy was being conscripted as an apprentice for ministry. Second, 1 Timothy 4, verse 12, which was written earlier in the same year that 2 Timothy was written, says this, let no one despise your youth. Commentators generally believe that the Greek word there for youth probably could not go beyond the age of 40. As one commentary says, the word naates could be used to indicate any age up to 40. Well, if he started eldership apprenticeship at the age of 25 in Acts 16, that would make him almost 40 in 1 Timothy, and it would make him 40 when 2 Timothy was written. And so it would fulfill the meaning of that word, noates. But others still strongly argue that Timothy was in his mid-40s at the writing of 1 Timothy. Now, I'm just doing this for the sake of the argument. He may have been older, which would prove my point even more strongly, but let's assume the younger age. If Timothy was 40 in AD 65, was 25 in AD 50, then he was born two years before Jesus even went into the ministry. And yet 2 Timothy 3.15 says he was being instructed in the scriptures from infancy by a believing mother. This makes Eunice an old covenant believer who had been looking forward to the coming Messiah. And the text says that that same faith dwelt first in her mother, Lois. And that means that Lois was an old covenant believer before Eunice. Lois trusted the Old Testament message long before Christ entered into the ministry, probably before Eunice was born, and, if it was an older age, possibly even before Christ was born. We'll save the practical implications for this for a little bit later in the sermon. But first of all, let me introduce you to the family. The most famous family member was obviously Timothy. 2 Timothy 1.5 says his mother's name was Eunice. Acts 16 says she was a Jewish believer. And Timothy's maternal grandmother was Lois. She too was a believer, and most commentators believe she too would have been a Jewish. Now, how far back did this faith go? When you compare Acts 16 with 2 Timothy 1, it becomes clear that Eunice was a strong believer before Timothy was born, in other words, before A.D. 25. if we hold to the later date, it becomes probable but less sure that Lois was a believer before Eunice was born, and all three of them are said by 2 Timothy 1.5 to have had a genuine faith. In fact, Paul greatly admires the faith of all three of them. He says it fills him with joy when he remembers the faith that dwelt in all of them. But that faith did not come out of the blue. It is a faith that Paul says was passed on from Timothy's mother, Eunice, and from Timothy's grandmother, Lois. So there was a covenantal passing on of the same faith, which means that both Lois and Eunice had a strong faith in God as well. Now, just as a side note, a number of commentaries say an absolutely necessary deduction from that verse is that the faith of Old Testament saints is the same faith as the New Testament saints, okay? There is a continuity in the religion and the faith itself. We won't get into that. But the next thing we see in these two women is that they had a faith that impacted all that they did. Now, this is a very, very important point to note when we're dealing with why was it that covenant succession happened with these two? There are two Greek words in verse 5 that indicate this. 2 Timothy 1.5 says, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Now the word for genuine faith means non-hypocritical faith. There was nothing pretend about their faith. Sometimes people can pretend to be Christians, but that was not them at all. What you saw outwardly was also present inwardly, and commentators point out it's an ongoing faith that characterized their lives. They lived by faith. Now, the second Greek word is enoikeo, the word that's translated as dwelt in. Very interesting word. Very rare word. It's only used by Paul in the New Testament. And it too emphasizes that this faith was an active faith that took up residence in them. Here's how one Greek expert translates this. To house in you continually. The idea is that their faith didn't just make an occasional appearance, but it was a full-time, year-round resident. It impacted everything they did. They were sold-out believers. Now, Lois and Eunice were Old Covenant believers initially, but they were sold out to God. This brings up a major, major problem. In fact, some people, liberals especially, say this is just a flat-out contradiction in the scripture. If Eunice and Lois were believers who approached everything in life through the eyes of faith, how on earth could Eunice get married to an unbeliever? Okay, that's the problem that they're facing. Turn to Acts chapter 16. This passage shows two glaring failures in this household. Acts chapter 16, let's read verses one through three. Then he came to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek." Now, the two glaring failures are that Eunice married an unbeliever, and she failed to apply the Old Testament sign of the covenant to Timothy. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant. And scripture is quite clear that even if there was just one spouse, You were duty-bound before God to apply the sign of the covenant to your children, set them apart to the Lord. In fact, in Genesis 17, it says that any male child that was not circumcised would be cut off from the covenant. He has broken the covenant. So how on earth did covenant succession happen with this massive failure? The other failure was being unequally yoked. We know that the father was an unbeliever from two words that Luke uses here, the words but and Greek. So she was a Jewish believer, but he was a Greek. Okay, being a Greek is contrasted with being a believer. And by the way, that's a common way to use the term Greek was as opposed to being a believer. It's unbelieving pagan. So how do we reconcile this with previous data points, which clearly show that Eunice lived out her faith from the time and before the time that Timothy was born. And it's actually worse. Problem is worse. Many commentators believe that the Jewish grandmother Lois was also unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, and they get this conclusion from four facts in the scripture. First, Paul only singles out the two women as having faith in Timothy's previous generations—2 Timothy 1-5. That would be extremely unusual if the fathers were believers. Second, Paul states that Timothy was immersed in the Old Testament Scriptures from the time he was in the womb, which means that Eunice believed in God before Timothy was born, 2 Timothy 3.15. But third, 2 Timothy 1.5 says that Lois was a believer first, which fourth means that Lois was a believer when Eunice got married to this unbeliever. How could a believing couple allow their daughter to marry a pagan? Jews were never supposed to marry pagans, and Christians aren't either. And so commentators believe that Lois too was married to an unbeliever. So how do I reconcile this with the previous point? I'm not sure. I'll be quite honest. True believers do sometimes marry unbelievers. We saw last week, that's what happened with the patriarch Jacob. He married an unbeliever. Rachel was an unbeliever. It doesn't make it right. but people of faith can still do bad things. But it may be that both marriages were arranged and neither Lois nor Eunice had a say in the matter, or it could be that they were deceived just like Jacob was, or there could be another reason for we're not told why. And I think God deliberately keeps us in the dark so that those who now are unequally yoked for whatever reason can still look to Lois and Eunice and find challenge, find comfort, find hope through their testimony. And so if you have friends who are mega discouraged because they're unequally yoked and they finally woken up to the fact of how bad this is, you can show them and encourage them through Lois and Eunice. With no Christian father or grandfather, it would have been very, very difficult for Lois to pass on the faith to Eunice and for Eunice to pass on the faith to Timothy. The statistics are definitely against that happening. They're very strongly against that happening. And yet, despite the statistics, these two women prove that God's grace can perform covenant succession, even when the husbands are not sold out to God, if certain things are in place. And we'll look at those certain things a little bit later. But what are the statistics that would have been against them? They vary slightly, but let me read from one study reported in Discipleship Journal. There's been many, many surveys that have been done over the years, and they come out pretty similar. It says, when the father is an active believer, there is about a 75% likelihood that the children will also become active believers. But if only the mother is a believer, this likelihood is dramatically reduced to 15%. Now, the study had a pretty low standard of what constituted an active believer. It's basically your average evangelical who goes to church, tries to be a nice mom and dad, And I think with our worldview and, you know, with the covenant theology that we have, the statistics definitely show a much higher rate, a 95%. Some of the studies show even higher than 95%. But they were looking at average Christian homes with a good dad. Well, I want to spend a bit of time talking to you fathers because it's not enough to be a good dad. A 75% statistic is not good enough. Now, this Greek dad appeared to be a pretty good father. He provided for his family. He must have been fairly easygoing. One commentator pointed this out. He said, he must have been fairly open-minded because he did not hinder his wife and mother-in-law from instructing Timothy in the Holy Scriptures. Even though he didn't believe in that fairy tale stuff himself, he thought, yeah, it's good morality. I don't have any problem with you teaching our kids that. But he was not supportive. He was okay with it. The only thing that he really seems to have put his foot down against was circumcising Timothy. Absolutely not. And given the disgust that the Greeks had over circumcision in that day, it's understandable. And so commentators assumed that this was not a failure on the part of Eunice. It was a prohibition on the part of the dad. So where did that put Timothy? I put him in the place of a God-fearer. He followed the religion of Israel, but without the sign of the covenant, without becoming a full Jew. And we can thank God that his father was one of the more broad-minded Greeks who tolerated a lot in the home. But bringing home the bacon is not enough. Playing with the kids occasionally, you know. and reading stories is not enough. Any pagan dad can do that. And my prayer is that every dad here will aspire to be a much better dad than Timothy's good dad was. Let me read you an article in which Irma Bombeck remembers her good dad, a father who could be like many a dad today. She said, when I was a kid, A father was like the light in a refrigerator. Every house had one, but nobody knew what either of them did once the door was shut. My dad left the house every morning and always seemed glad to see everyone at night. He opened the jar of pickles when nobody else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go to the basement by himself. He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood whenever it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he got the prescription filled. He set mousetraps, cut back the roses so the thorns wouldn't clip you when you came to the front door. When I got a bike, he ran alongside me for at least 1,000 miles until I got the hang of it. I was afraid of everyone else's father, but not my own. Once I made him tea. It was only sugar water. But he sat on a small chair and said it was delicious. Whenever I played house, the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll. So I had him say, I'm going off to work now, and threw him under the bed. When I was nine years old, my father didn't get up one morning to go to work. He went to the hospital and died the next day. I went to my room and felt under my bed for the daddy doll. When I found him, I dusted him off and put him on my bed. He never did anything. I didn't know his leaving would hurt so much. I still don't know why. Now, what that father did is what really many American fathers do. They're good fathers, but that's not a biblical dad. A biblical dad has an active faith that actively gets involved in leading his family, washing his family with the water of the word, instructing, guiding his family, commanding them in the way of the Lord. And when he leaves that door, He continues to guide his family. Mom says to the kids, oh, this is the way dad would have us do it. Let's do it. In other words, his guidance, his leadership characterized the home all the time throughout the week. Timothy's dad was an Irma Bombeck kind of a good dad. He didn't have an active part in the faith of Timothy. He no doubt did a lot of fun things with Timothy. No doubt provided well, but when the door closed as he went off to work, he was like that doll tossed under the bed and forgotten. The only leadership he had were on the big things like politics and whether Timothy could get circumcised or not. And if you're like Timothy's dad, you put a tremendous burden upon your wife that God did not intend women to have. Such women are at a huge disadvantage. And of course, it's never too late to change. And even though this sermon will show how women married to good dads can still pass on the faith as Lois and Eunice did, it's much better if the dads are actively involved. 95% is much better than 15%. or even 75%. So dads have an active faith. Be more than a good dad. But what made things even more complicated for Lois and Eunice was that Timothy had no male Christian role models until Acts 13 or Acts 14. There was no church to help out Eunice or Lois and to encourage them. Now, how do I come to that conclusion? Well, both history and archaeology confirm that there was no synagogue in Lystra that they could attend to strengthen their faith. People say, well, what about those Jews, you know, that came in chapter 14? Well, they came from Antioch and from Iconium. The mobs that welcomed Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14 and tried to worship them as Zeus and Apollos are the same mobs that stoned him in that same chapter. They were pagans. There was no known Jewish population in Lystra. It wasn't until Jews came from Antioch and Iconium spread lies about them to the Gentiles that the Gentiles were turned against Paul. So here's the point. The nearest synagogue was in Iconium, 20 miles away as the crow flies. It would be a little bit longer because you're going through windy paths in the mountains. The next nearest synagogue was in Antioch, eighty miles to the northwest, also through the mountains. Eunice, no doubt, was occasionally allowed to attend synagogue twenty-one miles away, as the crow flies. But it would have been a very inconvenient trip by foot. And even then, Timothy would have been segregated. He was a Gentile. He would not have been able to sit with the rest of the Jews, but he would have been able to attend. And there is some evidence that Timothy did indeed seek to attend a synagogue before he became a Christian. Now, why am I painting all of this background? It's because I want you to have a picture of how difficult things were for these two women. It makes their actions of faith stand out the stronger. You know, we have Eunices and Timothys spread out in small towns all over America. They don't have any church to attend. They don't want to attend the local liberal apostate church. And I wish there was some way we could accommodate these poor, forlorn, and isolated Christians via distance membership. It's something I would love for the CPC to discuss. Is there any way that we can accommodate these people through circuit riders or in some other way accomplish this? But back to the painting, the easygoing nature of the dad can also be seen by Timothy's name. It's obvious to commentators the dad did not name Timothy. Eunice did. His name means one who fears God. Not exactly something that would be first to come to the dad's mind. Now he's okay with Eunice doing that. He's okay with a lot of things that Eunice does in the home. and that Timothy had a good reputation that lived up to his name can be seen in Acts 16 verse 2 where it says years later he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Timothy had already been involved in serving in both places prior to AD 50. But let's take a look next at their relationship to Paul. As We have seen they were already Old Covenant believers long before meeting Paul. And I believe that Timothy became a Christian disciple by at least Acts 14 when Paul was ministering the gospel in Iconium and possibly as early as Acts 13 when Paul was ministering in Antioch. And the reason I've come to this conclusion is because 2 Timothy 3 verses 10 through 12 speaks of Timothy carefully following the apostles ministry and his life. He had been an admirer of him. He was following his journeys and greatly influenced by Paul before Paul even knew very much about Timothy. That verse says he carefully followed what had happened to him from the time of Antioch. Well, that would be from Acts chapter 13. Timothy must have traveled to Antioch And then Paul left Antioch to Iconium and then later to Lystra to get in on his teaching. It says, But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Now the word for carefully followed is paracallotheo, and it refers to something more than an academic interest in Paul. Here is the dictionary definition. to be closely associated with someone, viewed as an authority figure, to follow, to be attendant upon, to follow, accompany, attend, to conform to someone's belief or practice by paying special attention, to follow faithfully, to follow as a rule. In other words, he's already been convinced of the gospel in Acts chapter 13. And when he left there, he went to Iconium, then into Lystra. He had been a disciple for some time. Now, this means that they quickly became a part of the first Christian church that Paul established in Lystra. That was the city that he got stoned in, and may well have been one of the disciples who bound up his wounds after he was stoned. We don't know how long Paul was in Lystra, but 2 Timothy 1.5 indicates he must have been there long enough to develop a fairly close relationship with Lois and with Eunice. Paul recalls So he's remembering his time there. He recalls the genuine faith that was in Lois, Eunice, and in Timothy, and he says that it filled his heart with joy. So there seems to have been some kind of a relationship that had developed. Then their son, Timothy, was called into the ministry at somewhere between age 25 and 30 in Acts 16. And what a joy this would have been for these old covenant believers who had been looking so long for the coming of the Messiah. And then they discover, hey, the Messiah has already come. And then Timothy is being called to be an apostle, not an apostle, a servant, an ambassador for this Messiah. All of the hard labors of motherhood had paid off. And so given all of the disadvantages that Lois and Eunice had, how were they able to pass on the faith so successfully? And that's what I want to spend the rest of the sermon on. If we can imitate these two women on these things, I think it will hugely increase our covenant succession. Obviously, God is sovereign, but these are the things God loves to use to that end. First, they didn't focus on what they didn't have. They didn't have the support of their husbands. Now, sure, husbands didn't resist the faith too much, but neither were they supportive. They didn't have a good local church. For most of Timothy's younger years, they didn't have a good male Christian role model for Timothy to be influenced by. They didn't have much fellowship with fellow believers until Paul came along. There was a lot they didn't have. But if you focus too much on what you don't have, it's easy to become bitter, and bitterness is incompatible with faith. Maybe they made a bad decision when they got married. We don't know. But if that was the case, like the Apostle Paul, they would have to learn to just fling all of those past mistakes behind them and to start living by faith now, moving forward. Listen to what Paul said. He had plenty of regrets, but listen to what he said in Philippians 3, 13 through 16. One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and breaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind." So he's calling us to do the same thing. He says, do not stew about all of your disadvantages. Forget about those. Do what you can by faith. Forget about the mistakes of the past. Press on for the future. Second, make your faith real to everyday living. As we talked about earlier, the two words in 2 Timothy 1.5 show that this faith pulsed through their lives continually. As one person translated the word enoikeo, to housing you continually. Robert Yarbrough states, in Paul, Enoikeo describes divine, dynamic, and transforming presence. The faith of Timothy's maternal forebears was not passive, merely external or pro forma, but deep and alive. Lived in, in the NIV, is accurate enough, though perhaps a little bland. No wonder Timothy's appropriation of this faith, not shared, it seems, by his father, resulted in a fidelity and fervor that Paul found matched by few, if any, among his distinguished co-workers, Philippians 2.20. And that last verse that he referenced says, for I have no one like-minded. There was nobody that measured up to Timothy's faith in his estimation. So all three of them had a vibrant, dynamic, ever-resident faith. Now in our sermon on Peter's mother-in-law, we showed how it's possible to make faith stamp everything that you do in your home. And one of the super, super easy ways of doing it is once a week have a praise and thanksgiving time where you're thanking the Lord for the answered prayers that he's done during the week. And as you do this, your kids begin to realize, you know, God is constantly at work in our family. It's not a Sunday go to meeting kind of a faith. where it's different there than it is the rest of the week. No, this is a faith that lives out. And if you have that kind of a dynamic faith, not only do you have a greater chance of winning your children, 1 Corinthians 7 says you have the greater possibility of winning your unsaved spouse. Now, if you flip over to 2 Timothy 3, I see all of the rest of the keys to this covenant succession listed here. And we're going to start with 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15. It says that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. You know, it really does pay to look at definitions. And if you look up the word for childhood, it's brephos. And here is the dictionary definition. It says, almost always, this word means, quote, a child that is still unborn, a fetus. It can occasionally, some people actually reference this as one example, a born child, but almost always, and I think always really, but always, this is referring to an unborn child. So let's focus on that. How could an unborn child or fetus know the Holy Scriptures? Paul says that Timothy did know the Holy Scriptures when he was a fetus. And the word know is oida. It's a very strong word for knowledge. It's not seed faith. It's stronger than that. Here's how the dictionary defines oida. It says to have information about, to know, to be intimately acquainted with, or stand in close relationship to, to know, to grasp the meaning of something, to understand, recognize, come to know, and experience. How on earth is that possible for a fetus? Doesn't the Bible say that fetuses don't know a whole bunch? They don't even know the right hand from their left hand. Yes, it does. At that stage in a fetus's or a child's life, that is true. But there are other scriptures that say that a fetus knows a lot. How do we reconcile those scriptures? They seem like opposites. This is only a theory, and I don't usually preach theories, but I think I've got a lot of scripture to back up this theory. I'm speaking it with a great deal of fear and trepidation, but it's the only explanation that makes any sense to me. I believe that in the first weeks in a fetus's life, Before the brain even exists, the mind of the newly created spirit of the child can think clearly without the limits of a physical brain. The process in which a brain develops does not even begin until week five. But it's not until week six or seven that the neural tube closes, and the brain separates into three parts. But even there, it's not much of a brain. Once the brain is formed, it seems to act, I liken it to a step-down transformer that actually limits the ability of the mind to think. When a baby dies and goes to heaven, Its spirit is no longer hampered by the body's limitations. And even if it didn't learn language yet, it's instantly able to communicate in heaven completely. A newly created mind is not a tabula rasa. It's not a blank slate. Okay, Adam and Eve instantly had language. They didn't have to learn language, instantly had language because their brains were formed to correspond with their mind, match up with their mind. So when God creates a spirit, it has huge capabilities. But let's trace a few scriptures that hint at this idea that from day one, infants have some knowledge. Romans 1-2 says that the work of God's law is written on the heart. Psalm 58-3 and other scriptures say that babies sin against God's law in the womb. How can they sin against God's law if they don't know God's law? There are many scriptures like 2 Timothy 3-15 that seem to indicate that fetuses can know God's word and scripture is crystal clear there is a vast difference between the mind and the brain. We cannot confuse the two. The mind normally thinks through the brain, but if there is no brain, that does not mean the mind does not think. If this is true, then during those early weeks when the mind of the child's spirit is unfettered by the brain, the spirit of the fetus can understand voices, learn music, know language, and put an active trust in God." And there are actually scientific studies that are beginning to demonstrate that this, you know, point in that direction. Verify this. that newly created spirit can also rebel against God's law that it hears. For example, Isaiah 48 verse 8 says, you are a transgressor from the womb. Now the word for transgressor, pasha, is an active word that shows rebellion against God's law. In other words, it's not just describing the sin nature, it's describing a conscious action of sin. How could a fetus in the womb transgress or rebel against God's law if it did not know God's law? Psalm 22 9-10 says David trusted God and totally cast himself upon the Lord in his mother's womb and continued to have that faith when he was on his mother's breasts. So how Was that possible? Faith is trust in God's word. Where did he get God's word when he was in his mother's womb? Well, I think he got it the same way that Timothy did. David's mother and father were reading the scripture while he was in his mother's womb. He heard the word when he attended church. while the benediction was being given, and in other ways was exposed to the Holy Scripture. So that's Psalm 22, 9 through 10. Job 10, 10 through 12 seems to indicate that Job's spirit, that was the self-conscious I and me of the passage, was conscious while his father's sperm was still in the womb. That's day one. In fact, that's one of several passages that people go to to prove the spirit is created at the moment of fertilization, at the moment of conception. Luke 1.44 speaks of John the Baptist's joy in the womb meeting the Messiah. Now obviously it was prophetic, but the prophetic somehow was understood by the baby's mind in some way. Joy is a rational concept. Now these are all simply hints of how it could happen, but we can know from 2 Timothy 3.15, by faith, that children can know the holy scriptures. It's enough for me. God says it. I believe it. Okay, so what difference does that viewpoint make? Well, those verses spurred Kathy and me to make sure there was never a day that our children did not hear the scriptures read to them, in the womb even, and scriptures sung and scripture discussed. In fact, the scriptures were an atmosphere in which our children swam. When you have that kind of an atmosphere, there's no guarantee of results, but kids cannot help but be impacted powerfully. They see the reality of God and of God's worldview rather than seeing the hypocrisy of one way of living on Sunday and a different way of living the rest of the week. Immerse your born and unborn children in the Holy Scriptures. Next, have confidence that those scriptures can produce faith and salvation. 2 Timothy 3.15 goes on to say, the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." Now, this verse continues the theme of the scriptures that Timothy had been brought up on. When they trusted those scriptures, God honored their faith. Now, for those who think that other people's faith cannot impact our salvation, I love to turn them to Mark chapter two, where Peter's roof was torn up and they lowered the paralytic down. Remember when we preached on Peter's mother-in-law? And it says in verse five, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you. There was a direct connection between their faith and the salvation and forgiveness of sins of the paralytic. And in the same way, there was a direct connection between the faith of parents in the power of scripture to change and transform, and the salvation of our children. So trust God's word, and you will use it constantly. The next thing I see in 2 Timothy 3 is in the first part of verse 16. It says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Lois and Eunice believed that. They treated the scripture as the ultimate authority. It had higher authority than their husband. And so when it called them to do something that their husband didn't care about, they had to obey the higher authority, right? It was God's thoughts communicated through the prophets to our minds. Now, if the kids do not see scripture as our highest authority, how on earth are we going to expect them to treat it as their highest authority? Then the verse says, and it's profitable for doctrine. Doctrine is the substance of what faith is founded upon. Now the phrase, the faith, with a V in it, can refer to the beliefs God's people trusted or to the inward trust itself. And there's debate back and forth on, you know, here, but most commentators say you cannot artificially divide between the object of faith and the subject of faith. in an absolute way. So teach and apply doctrine constantly. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The two are knit together, and the more practical your doctrine is, the more practical your faith will be. Many parents don't get the practical ramifications of doctrine. But if you don't apply doctrine, You don't see its practical outworking. The doctrine of the Trinity and the inter-Trinitarian relationships are taken from passages that are profoundly transformational, you know, on humility and mutual care and leadership and delegation and many other things we looked at in the Trinity series. The doctrine of total depravity has huge implications to your parenting. I've got a paper that shows the connection of this presupposition to how we approach discipline. other aspects of parenting, psychology, science, philosophy, education, politics, art, religion, apologetics, many other areas. In other words, you're going to be misled in those areas if one of your presuppositions is not the doctrine of total depravity. I won't go on, but the point is we must learn how to apply doctrine. The next key in verse 16 is for reproof. Disciplining our children should always come with scriptural reproof. The children need to see the discipline in a Godward direction, not simply a parental direction. We do, after all, want them to trust God, not us. We do, after all, want their consciences to be gripped and directed by God, not what everybody thinks about them, right? So reproof should be backed up by Scripture. This passage says the Bible is sufficient for all reproof. I mean, this is one of the things that the book by Bruce Ray, what is the name of the book? Withhold Not Correction. Thank you, Michael. It was so great on as it's showing how to make all of our proofs biblical reproofs, scriptural reproofs. Those are going to be far more transformational reproofs. The next key word is for correction. If we just tell our children, do it because I told you to, that's not enough. Now, obviously, our children need to have instant obedience. But more and more, our correction needs to come from the scripture, or their faith will not be in the scripture. It's going to be in us, and we're going to let them down. Scripture will never let them down. The next key is for instruction and righteousness. This is showing the put-ons. This is showing the positive directions that the children need to go. When you teach them to think and to manage their time and to manage their money, and do their chores, do it through a grid of scripture. And there's so much in the scripture that we can't get into that, you know, economic, biblical economics. and biblical self-government and service. Pam Forster's book, I think I've recommended it before, Instruction and Righteousness. You may not agree with everything that's in there, but she tries to show both the put-offs and the put-ons and scriptural illustrations and giving you ideas that relate to every sin and every righteous habit we want to instill in our children. The last key is in verse 17, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, if it is clear to our children we really believe that, and we go to Scripture for everything, they too will begin to mind the Scriptures for themselves. And if we let them know we're constantly discovering new things from the Bible, they're going to know we don't know everything. It's okay to admit we don't know, but we're going to continue to mind the Scripture, or go to people who have minded it more than we have. But let me end with four more brief applications. If the Holy Scriptures that were being used by Eunice were being used from the time that Timothy was an infant, they were the Old Testament scriptures. New Testament hadn't been written yet. And yet Paul says that those Old Testament scriptures that Timothy knew from childhood are themselves sufficient for faith, salvation, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Yes, we praise God for the New Testament, but Paul had high praise for the Old Testament as well. Luke says Paul was able to prove everything he taught from the Old Testament. So don't neglect the Old Testament. You do not have all of the blueprints for life if you neglect the Old Testament. Second, though God can perform covenant succession through our moms, you dads play a vital role in making sure it happens in a clean and healthy way. Many books on Timothy have pointed out that Timothy's fears and insecurities may have arisen because he didn't have a male role model growing up that was a Christian. Now, Paul sought to correct some of those fears and insecurities later on. But it's better if we can provide the healthy environment our children need from an early age. And this is especially important in our day of gender confusion. Try to make the time to be more than a good dad. Statistics show a huge payoff. Third, take advantage of some of the role models in the church just like Timothy did. Have kids, enter apprenticeships in Christian businesses. Where there is an absent father, the church can be a rich place for alternative male role models to influence and to guide. And then finally, let's all pray for the key role that moms and dads play in this church. It's hard. to be more than a good mom and a good dad. Very, very hard. It takes a lot of study and sacrifice and prayer and time. So let's pray that our moms and dads strive to be men and women of faith of whom it could be said that they have an unhypocritical dynamic faith that is housed in them continually. Amen. Father, thank you for this word. Thank you for all of the examples that you set in the scripture that could be challenges to our faith or warnings against compromise. Help us, Father, to be more and more consistent in our Christianity, to not get discouraged when we look at the high standard, because all of us will fall short, but, Father, to strive ever toward that upward calling that you've given to us in Christ Jesus. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen.