Sermon Transcript:

The Bible describes conversion and salvation in terms of a whole new life. We are born again and then, just like any other newborn, we need milk and then stronger food as we grow. Just as in our physical lives, our spiritual lives require certain relationships, activities, and nutrients for us to grow to maturity.  This morning we continue our series 5 Things we need to Grow, looking at 5 of those things the Bible says God uses in our lives to cause us to grow more mature in our faith.

We have already looked at prayer and worship and today we will look at study. The study of God’s word is essential to spiritual growth. We cannot mature as believers apart from growing in our understanding of God’s word. This morning I want to explain why Bible study is essential to spiritual maturity for every believer and how to pursue joy in your study. Our main text is 2 Timothy 3:16–17. There are hundreds of texts I could have chosen for this message but I picked this one because it goes to the heart of why study leads to spiritual growth.

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 

We will understand the value of study better when we keep in mind what the Bible is. We are flooded constantly with the wisdom and values of the world. Inundated in every way through entertainment, education, news, and culture with the messages of the world. We exist in a swirling mass of selfishness, sensuality, and ignorance. But the Bible is direct revelation from God. It is the wisdom of the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving creator. The scriptures are “breathed out by God.” They are unlike anything else in the world.

The greatest minds in history have all recognized the limitations of human ability to get outside of our own situated perspectives and find eternal truths. The philosopher Plato said we were like men in a cave studying the shadows on the wall. Immanuel Kant said we could never know a thing in itself, only our perception of it. Lessing said there was a great ugly ditch between the facts we could know and the truth. Postmodern thinkers like Foucault argued that any claim of truth was just an attempt to impose our power on others. 

The history of attempts by fallen human beings to find absolute truth has been a history of failure and frustration. The Bible is God’s revelation of himself to sinners. It cuts through the darkness and limitations of human opinion and is the only reliable guide to the truth available to us. The bottom line is we should study the Bible because it is the only certain source of truth we have. 

Opening the word of God is like turning on the light in a dark room. Our feeble sinful minds could never have approached God, so he stooped down to communicate with us. All our man-made religions and man made philosophies have failed to give us truth. We need to admit that our only hope for truth and salvation is the grace of God. 1 Corinthians 1:20-21 says,

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

The only message that can save us or transform us is the message of the Bible. That God created the world good, but human beings plunged it into darkness because of our sin. That we cannot fix this problem we caused but that God is working to redeem his creation and offers salvation to us through his beloved son Jesus. That Jesus lived a perfect life with no sin of his own but offered himself as a sacrifice in the place of all who would put their faith in him. 

That in his death on the cross he reconciles repentant sinners to God. Three days later Jesus rose again and returned to heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of the Father and is now interceding for his people until he returns to judge the world and perfect the faithful. 

These things were hidden from human wisdom. It is through the word alone that we learn God’s plan of salvation. It is through the Bible alone that the significance of Jesus Christ and His Gospel is revealed. It is through the word alone that we are taught of God’s unfailing faithfulness and promises to his people. It is only in the Bible that we learn that Jesus invites all everywhere to repent and come to him in faith.

Scripture not only points us to Jesus to be forgiven and justified but also that we may be sanctified. The Spirit works with the word to help us grow in holiness and be transformed to be more like Jesus, growing in maturity and faith. The text says scripture is 

profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness

It is profitable. That means it pays off. The benefit is greater than the cost. If we use the Bible as God intended we will learn and grow. It is useful for reproof and correction, meaning that it shows us the things in our lives that God disapproves of and points us to what is right. Our contemplation and study of the Bible is training in righteousness. 

As our lives come into contact with the word it is like an anvil that shapes and forms us in the pursuit of righteousness. This growth in righteousness is God transforming us into who we are through our new identity in Jesus.

We are justified by faith alone. That means that when we put our faith in Jesus, God declares us righteous. As soon as we believe we are forgiven of all sin and are right before God because we are united to Jesus and he has met every requirement of holiness on our behalf. We are proclaimed righteous not because of our righteousness but because we now have the righteousness of Christ.

But that isn’t the end of the story. God will continue to work in us until one day in glory we are perfected and just like Jesus. The Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures for us and applies their truth to our life so that through them we are being trained in righteousness. In Jesus we are righteous and now we are learning how to live according to that identity. We have been born again and now through the word we are learning how to walk.

Believers are purchased by the blood of Christ and are set apart as holy or sanctified ones. The spirit of God works in our life to transform us or sanctify us so that we increasingly display this new identity. This process of sanctification is accomplished by God through the truth of his word. In John 17:17 Jesus says,

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Our growth in holiness and Christlikeness is inseparably connected to the word of God. The written word of God is used by the spirit of God to transform us to be increasingly like Jesus, the living word of God. It is significant that God accomplishes this work through the truth of his word. That shows that we are not passive in this work. Although the new birth is an unaided work of God, once we are born again we cooperate with God in the work of sanctification. It isn’t immediate and he doesn’t zap us with it. It comes through our mind because it is a rational transformation.

The world has convinced us that spirituality is mystical and emotional but the Bible says that we are saved as whole persons. We do not check our brains at the door when we become believers. Bible study is a spiritual experience. We are transformed by the knowledge of the truth. Romans 12:2 says,

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The Bible says that what enables us to resist the pressure to be like the world and facilitates us being transformed into what God is creating in us is the renewal of our mind. That means that the lies we have been fed by Satan and the world are displaced with the truths of God’s word. The Holy Spirit restructures our deepest assumptions through reforming our thinking according to the truth.

As we begin to see ourselves and the world the way God sees it we grow in wisdom and maturity. Our priorities change and our desire to live in a way that brings honor to God grows as well as our understanding of how to do it, by testing all things according to the word.

There are thousands of questions and decisions we need to make in our lives that are not specifically addressed in the Bible. Personal life choices such as where to live or work. How to manage aspects of our mental and physical health. Questions about politics, economics, and so forth. While it is true the Bible doesn’t tell us which company to work for or what kind of car to drive it does address the fundamental values we work from in making those decisions.

Every position we hold and every thought out opinion we have flows from our fundamental belief about who God is, what a human being is, what truth is, about what is real, about what makes something good or bad. The combination of these beliefs determines how we will think and live and the Bible answers all these fundamental questions.

Spiritual maturity is the transformation of our thoughts and desires by the truth of the word. What we have in the Bible are the thoughts of God. Paul says we have the mind of Christ. If we want intimacy with God and spiritual growth we can do nothing better than to have our mind transformed by the mind of God. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 that the first and greatest commandment is

37 …“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

We cannot grow spiritually if we neglect our minds. The peace and joy and hope that anchors us in the Christian life comes from the knowledge of God. Of who he is, what he has done, and what he has promised to do. The more we know about God the more marvelous truths we have to meditate upon. The more we know about God the more lovely and glorious he appears to us. The more truth we know the sweeter our salvation and our savior appear. 

It is the regular pattern of scripture to connect truth, knowledge, and the redeemed life. Let me give you just a couple of examples. 2 Peter 1:3–4 says,

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Life and godliness come through the knowledge of him. All our promises are secured by the glory and excellence of God. It is in him that we escape corruption and have been made partakers of the divine nature. It is by coming to know him that we have obtained access to these tremendous blessings. If we did not know God we would have none of these things. The better we know him the more treasures we find.

That may be why the apostle Paul, in one of the greatest pastoral prayers ever written, places our growth in the knowledge of God at the center of his prayer in Ephesians 1:16–19 says,

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

Brothers and sisters, in study we come to a better knowledge of God and that leads to a stronger and more mature faith. If we only knew all that we could know many of our burdens would be easier to bear. This knowledge, however, is not only for our own benefit. We have responsibilities as believers to others that requires knowledge and wisdom if we are to serve well.

After Jesus was raised and just before he ascended into heaven he gives the church a mission. This is the work the lord has given to us. In Matthew 28:19–20 Jesus says,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We are called by Jesus to make disciples. The word disciple literally means learners or students. Disciples are made first by sharing the gospel and baptizing but the process doesn’t stop there. Notice in verse 20 that discipleship is not only about conversions, it is about a life of learning the lessons of the master. To be a disciple of Jesus means that we are a student of the master, learning all that he commanded.

To be a disciple means that we are prepared to be disciple makers. That means our desire is to be able to clearly share the gospel. To have a firm enough understanding of the word to comfort those who need to be comforted and to correct those that need to be corrected. We want to have enough godly wisdom to give good advice to those who need it. What fuels and equips us to do that is the knowledge of the great God we serve.

God has revealed himself to us out of great love. There is nothing that will strengthen, encourage, and bless us more than to be brought closer to him. God is therefore jealous of our attention not because he needs attention from us but because he knows that we will be most blessed when our attention is on him. 

He has shared everything we need but often we bring our own difficulties because we have ignored what God has said. Jesus frequently corrected people by pointing out their errors resulting from ignoring scripture. Similarly, in Hebrews 5:12–14 the author says,

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

He says that believers that do not grow in their understanding of the Bible is like having a full grown man who only eats baby formula. He doesn’t have the strength to do the work of a man because he is malnourished and weak. It is a tragedy that we have so many today who claim to follow Jesus and yet know next to nothing about what is in their Bibles.

We have more Bible study resources today than at any other time in history and yet the level of biblical knowledge of the average professing Christian in the United States is tragically low. It is common for people to say they are too busy to study the Bible. Yes, we are busy, but we are mostly busy doing nothing. 

People in the United States have more leisure time now than at virtually any other time in history. Perhaps you are listening to me and thinking you don’t have time. Maybe that is true but for most of us if we added up all the time we spend online, watching TV, and otherwise entertaining ourselves it would be clear that our neglect of study is not the result of a lack of time, but a lack of priorities. We cannot grow stronger without being fed and many Christians these days are starving to death simply because they won’t lift the fork to their mouth.

Paul tells young Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15,

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

The Greek word translated as “do your best” literally means to be eager or zealous. The older translations used to say “study to show yourself approved” because one who is eager to rightly handle the truth is one who studies. Not everyone has the same capacity or opportunity to study but the important thing is that whatever you do, get more of the word.

When I say that study is necessary for spiritual growth I am not talking about highly technical academic study. There may be a few who are called to that but it is not exploring arcane truths that cause us to grow but a deepening understanding of the significance of the basic truths of the gospel. Study for the sake of study puffs up and causes pride. In John 5:39 Jesus tells the Pharisees,

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me

We do not study to learn more facts, we study to be brought closer to Jesus. The power of the Bible is not in its sophistication but in its revelation of Jesus Christ. There are profound and deep truths in the Bible but they all intersect in the gospel. We don’t need to understand all the mechanics of the trinity or the incarnation to understand they are crucial to our redemption. We are united to Christ through our faith and not through an intricate understanding of every aspect of union.

The interesting thing is that the more we meditate even on those very deep truths the more they will bring us back to the awesomeness of God and the gospel. The Bible is God’s message to shepherds and fishermen as well as to kings and scholars. With a handful of basic lessons the average person can learn to study the Bible for themselves in a way that will fuel a lifetime of growth.

The key is to start wherever you are. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Begin with prayer asking God to open up the word to you. If you are not regularly reading the Bible, start reading it. If you are already reading it regularly, begin studying it more thoroughly. If you are not sure where to start join one of the several Bible study groups we have or find another believer and begin meeting with them to study together.

If you struggle with reading and studying, begin by listening to the Bible being read. There are many apps and streaming services that will help you do that. As you listen, take it in small chunks and just keep asking, “what does this tell me about the character of God” and “what does this tell me about myself?” The whole Bible is about redemption from sin so every passage will connect with those themes. 

In the same way that there is a difference between reading sheet music and playing a song, there is a difference between understanding the answers to theology questions and having those truths so grip our heart that they change us and are expressed in our lives. True Bible knowledge is measured in applied truth rather than speculative truth. In other words, we are not transformed by understanding the Bible, but by believing it and there is a difference.

When we go to the word we are seeking to encounter God and be changed by it. James 1:22–25 says

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

When we approach the word with a sincere desire to hear God speaking to us and revealing himself to us, we will grow. That brings us back again to where we began, to the nature and power of God’s word. James' call to action highlights that the Bible is not there merely to inform us, but to transform us. The word of God is a tool of the spirit that is active within the heart of the believer. As we immerse ourselves in the Bible, we encounter the God who promises to change us. 

Hebrews 4:12 captures this beautifully,

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

The word penetrates to the deepest parts of our soul and God uses it like a skilled surgeon to cut away the unhealthy tissue and perform reconstructive spiritual surgery. All of this leads to greater joy and greater peace and greater confidence because through it we come to see Christ more clearly. If you want to grow in your faith I encourage you to study the Bible. That is a means of growth that God has promised to bless.

I would like to finish this morning with the words of king David as he meditates on the benefits of studying God’s word in Psalm 19:7–14 says,

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.