Sermon preached by Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
April 20, 2008
Copyright © 2008, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

This is our third grade Bible weekend. Yesterday evening at our 5:30 contemporary service, we gave out Bibles to all of our graduating third graders. And we're doing the same at both of our worship services this morning. Then they and their families will be entertained by Anne and me and our children's ministry team for a great celebrative brunch at our home. It's one of the highlights of our church year. I frequently run into men and women all over Orange County who light up when they see me, saying, "I remember when you gave me my third grade Bible, and we had all that good food at your house."

So what's the big deal about the Bible?

Over a year now, you've had a Visioning Team looking at every aspect of St. Andrew's life. Over fourteen hundred of you filled out extensive surveys, and hundreds of you were involved in small group listening sessions, as well as other interactive events to help us come up with what we call: Our Vision; Our Mission; and Our Core Values.

Each week, we print all three of these on the front of the bulletin. Following are what we call our Core Values:

AS A CHRIST-CENTERED CHURCH WE VALUE:

A BIBLICAL FOUNDATION
EXPERIENCING WORSHIP TOGETHER
RELATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
BEING INTERGENERATIONAL
A COMMITMENT TO MISSIONS

What stands out to you as you look at those Core Values?

The first one is "A Biblical Foundation."

So what's the big deal about the Bible?

If we take the time and energy each year to give each graduating third grader their own Bible, and if we put this as the first Core Value of our church's life, it's important to stop and address this issue.

Why should I take the time to study the Bible?

Isn't going to church enough? Isn't being in a small group sufficient?

Your personal study of the Bible equips you for truthful, godly living in a relativistic age!

Contemporary living is not easy. Some of the most sophisticated voices in our day declare that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Even some so-called Christian theologians and philosophers define truth in relativistic, existential terms, such as "truth is truth for me." Our own human, natural instincts toward survival quickly latch on to such presuppositions, and we, even as Christians, can find ourselves tossing on tempestuous moral, ethical and spiritual seas.

Jesus set His face steadfast toward Jerusalem. This One, who was both fully God and fully human, had subjected himself to our own human limitations, suffering as we suffer, tempted as we are tempted, but sustained through His suffering and temptation by the teachings of the Scriptures and by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Picture Him that Palm Sunday as He rode through the streets of Jerusalem hearing the cheering "Hosannas!" of the crowds. He was equipped for this occasion by His study of the Scriptures as a child emerging into manhood in Nazareth. He knew His roots. He knew what was absolute and what was relative. He knew His calling. He knew His purpose in life. As much as everything physical in Him yearned to avoid the cross, He knew that it was the purpose of His coming. Time after time, during His earthly ministry, He quoted the Scriptures, using the phrase He used those three times during His temptation, "It is written."

This One, who had all authority in His very deity, appealed in His humanity to the authority of the Word of God. With this intentionality, He rode through the "Hosannas!" not allowing His head to be turned by the cheering. Then, later that week, the cheering turned to jeering, the "Hosannas!" turned to "Crucify Him, Crucify Him." He knew how to accept abuse without being destroyed. Jesus knew how to move undaunted by the crowd toward the cross, while still loving persons so fickle in this relativistic world.

It is so easy to be caught up in "churchianity," in a kind of intravenous feeding of artificial life support. We do well while surrounded by our Christian friends. Take us out of that environment, and we can end up pushed all over the place by various pressures in a relativistic world, when we lack the personalized support system of the truth of God's Word.

I have visited many wonderful church members in hospital rooms throughout 46 years of ministry. Some of my most vivid memories are of friends in the intensive care unit.

I remember visiting one of my friends who was stretched out on a bed, literally being kept alive by four tubes. One was a central venous pressure catheter, which was monitoring his heart volume. Another was a catheter monitoring his kidney output. A third was an endotracheal tube, which was aiding his respiration. The last was a tube attached to his arm providing intravenous feeding. My friend could not continue very long with such artificial sustenance of life. His heart, kidneys and lungs would have to begin to function on their own. The intravenous feeding was only maintaining nourishment. His body was not being built up by it. Abruptly remove the tubes, and there would be immediate death. Continue indefinitely with the tubes, and there would be a gradual deterioration leading to death.

Spiritually speaking, it is possible for you and me to be in a similar situation--that of dependence on others for spiritual sustenance. Are you totally dependent on the "tubes" of other persons' preaching, teaching, prayers and friendship to nourish you in your Christian life? Abruptly remove the tubes, and there will be spiritual death. Continue indefinitely with intravenous feeding, and there will be only a temporary sustenance of life.

I talked with a man who loves his church and the pastors who have served it. As we talked, it became obvious that he was receiving all of his spiritual inspiration from the pulpit. He freely admitted that he didn't ever open the Bible. He had no personal contact with God through the Scriptures. It was evident that he was basking in a spiritual dependency upon others. He had never learned to function as God would have him function, obtaining spiritual nourishment directly from the Word of God through daily Bible study followed by prayer.

One of the dangers in being involved in a big church like St. Andrew's that has so many programs is one can substitute church programs for a daily personal time with God in the Scriptures and prayer.

One of the most well known churches in the United States is the Willow Creek Church in Barrington, Illinois, pastored by a remarkable man by the name of Bill Hybels. Bill founded and pastors one of the most successful churches in the United States and has spawned thousands of other churches around the world that are part of his Willow Creek Association. Several years ago, he commissioned a comprehensive study of his own church and those using his model. That in itself was a courageous act.

What even took more courage was to publish the results in a short book called Reveal: Where Are You? The survey results showed that heavy involvement in the church programs and activities of Willow Creek did not necessarily translate into spiritual growth and maturity. I admire Hybels standing up and admitting, "We made a mistake." He refers to the results of this study as "earthshaking" and "groundbreaking." You see, it's one thing to be a user-friendly church with programs designed to meet the felt needs of men, women and children in our consumer-oriented society. It's another to lead them to personal faith in Jesus Christ and challenge them to spiritual growth and maturity in which their lives are truly transformed by self-disciplined daily involvement in studying God's Word, the Bible, and in the conversation of prayer with God.

Hybels is not going to cut back the programs of the church. Nor will we here at St. Andrew's. But he is challenging his people and I challenge you to a radical involvement with the Word of God that goes beyond the excellent programs we have to offer. These programs, this preaching and teaching, are extremely helpful. But why absorb strength merely through artificial methods, when authentic life is available through direct contact with God in Jesus Christ? A baby is spoon fed. The day comes, developmentally, when that person is able to feed oneself on an adult diet. Those life-sustaining catheters are absolutely essential when you are in ICU, but you can't live that way forever. If you want to stay alive spiritually, you need to encounter Jesus Christ through the daily study of God's Word, the Bible.

Why should you take the time to study the Bible?

The Apostle Paul directs these very specific words to a young pastor named Timothy. He writes, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

The Bible is the source of the most important wisdom in the world--wisdom that leads to salvation. Often a person will share with me his cynicism, doubt, frustration, despair for life. In essence, the person is crying, "HELP!" What he wants is salvation but does not know where to find it. Salvation is available through faith in Jesus Christ. You cannot learn about Jesus Christ in a vacuum. You need a source book that will open this salvation to you and enable you to grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ, the very process of sanctification in which your life is marked by that eternal life that Jesus Christ came to live.

There are two major aspects of the Christian life.

One is an initial conversion in which, for the first time, you step into the reality of salvation. This is the point at which you say once and for all, "God, I can't handle my own life. I receive Jesus Christ. I'm sorry for my sins. I turn my life over to you."

A number of you have taken this step in recent weeks, emerging out of the invitation I gave in the Easter message. One of you, just this week in my study, came and said God used that message. I'm here to do something about it. I've read part of the book you gave me by Chuck Colson, The Faith, and I want to do what I need to do next. I asked him if he had ever received Jesus Christ as his Savior. He said, "No." I asked, "Would you like to do it now?" His immediate response was, "Yes!" I walked him through a little booklet by Billy Graham titled, Steps to Peace With God, and then he prayed a simple prayer of trust in Jesus Christ. It's a starting point. That's conversion.

Then there is a second dimension in which you grow spiritually. It's called sanctification. Sanctification is that process in which you grow spiritually, increasing in wisdom. The Bible is ". . . able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ."

It is my responsibility and that of every pastor to preach. Preaching would be an impossible job if I had to do it on my own human wisdom.

I remember back in the late 1960s, I attended a preaching seminar at Princeton Theological Seminary. I'll never forget the statement made by one young man who had been out of seminary for just one year. He looked at our visiting professor, Dr. Raymond I. Lindquist, who then was pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and said, "Dr. Lindquist, I've enrolled in this seminar for one reason. I've been in the ministry for a year now, and I've run out of things to preach about. I've preached my sermon on love, my sermon on forgiveness, my sermon on race, and I've run out of fresh topics. I'm hear to get some new sermon material."

Dr. Lindquist wielded the pastoral scalpel deftly as he replied, "Young man, you may have exhausted your own human understanding of these topics, but you will never exhaust the Word of God, if you faithfully proclaim it week after week after week!"

If human wisdom were my only guide, this church would lack a spiritual leader, and its members would have to seek spiritual nurture elsewhere.

A seminary friend told me he was scared to death to take a church of his own for fear that he would run out of things to preach about after three or four years. He sort of scared me in the process.

I can now say, experientially, in over forty years of ordained ministry, that I have only begun to scratch the surface of the wisdom of the Word of God, both for my congregation and in my own personal spiritual life. A preacher's own words are not authoritative. It is only the Word of God that stands in a timeless way. Preaching and living must be based on this Word.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great British preacher, related the experience of many churches he had known. He said that some had flourished as a result of the dynamic personality of the minister. The trouble with this kind of church, he said, was that, when the minister died or left town, the people were at a loss for leadership. They wandered around without a sense of direction. Another type of church flourished under the leadership of a person of God who faithfully proclaimed the Scriptures. When this person died or moved on, the people were equipped for spiritual growth. The church maintained vitality, because the work had been established in the integrity and authority of the Bible. This integrity of the Bible requires the purposeful study of God's Word.

Just what is this Bible?

One way of stating it is that the Bible is ". . . the only infallible rule of faith and practice." This means that the Bible is the only fully reliable source of information on what to believe and how to live. Or it can be put in other terms. God has chosen to tell me some things about himself, not everything, but enough for me to get along with Him. God has chosen to tell me some things about myself, not everything, but enough for me to get along with myself. And God has chosen to tell me some things about you, not everything about you, but enough so that I can get along with you. The Bible, in very practical terms, is a repository of divinely revealed truth, which enables you and me to live with some foundational absolutes about God, ourselves and our fellow human beings in a world of enormous relativity.

Why should I study the Bible? Paul's letter to Timothy continues, "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful. . . ."

Useful is the key word here. Another translation of that word is "profitable." You can find the Scriptures useful in several essential ways.

Paul writes, "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Do you catch this?

It is useful for teaching.

Preaching is not enough. A good emotional feeling about God is not enough. You need solid teaching about the Christian faith. The Bible teaches you how to grow in your Christian life.

You may pride yourself in the fact that you gave yourself to Jesus Christ a few years ago. You may be sitting back luxuriating in the knowledge that your sins are forgiven, but you're not exposing yourself to the Word of God. You better start digging in, or you're going to be in real spiritual trouble if you're not already! Conversion is just the starting point.

Take, for example, an airline pilot. I remember when my daughter Carla was 15 years old and was taking flying lessons. I remember the day she did her first "take-off." She stuck with this for awhile, but then moved on to other interests.

I am existentially reminded of what it takes to be a pilot. At what point does a person become a good pilot? Is that person a good pilot at the point when one makes the decision to become a pilot? Of course not! One has to learn how to be a pilot. It makes no difference how emotionally excited one is about becoming a pilot. One may have a commitment to aeronautics that is steadfast. But beyond that, one needs training. That pilot takes flight instruction. He studies a manual. Finally, he solos and then builds up the experience of in-flight hours and further study. At last, the day comes when he is employed by an airline. He is not immediately given the full responsibility to sit in the left seat of his aircraft. He continues to learn in a subordinate role. The day eventually comes when he becomes a captain. Has he arrived now? No! He continues to learn, to be taught. He has to keep up on the manuals, on flight regulations, on changes in equipment. He has to know the rules and the regulations. He has to understand the equipment. It is absolutely essential that he learns the doctrine, the teachings of his profession.

Take the doctor or the engineer or the lawyer. It is one thing to be romantically committed to a profession and another thing to be a responsible professional person. It is one thing to claim to be a Christian and profess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and another thing to learn about Him, maturing in responsible discipleship. Bible study is profitable for teaching.

The Bible is useful for reproof.

If you are serious about wanting to grow in your Christian life, you need to be alerted to certain errors in your attitude and style of living. You need to be convicted of things that are out of kilter in your life. The Bible speaks with authority as to what is moral and what is immoral! You may be kidding yourself into thinking that some of your relationships are alright in the eyes of God, when actually, according to His Word, they are downright immoral.

One young couple I know, who claimed to be Christians, were living together as husband and wife without being married. When confronted with the question, "Do you trust the Bible?", they said, "Absolutely!" Then I asked them how they could live this way. To this, they responded, "We prayed about it, and the Lord said it was alright." This couple needed reproof from the Word of God, which, although an authority to them, was a closed Book.

We need reproof not only for our wrong actions. We need reproof to confront us with our wrong attitudes.

One of my former associates, Sherwood Strodel, used to say that the three most important words in the English language are, "ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE." My attitudes need the reproof of God's Word.

The Bible is useful for correction.

If you are really a Christian, all of your theories, theology, ethics, lifestyles are to be tested against the Bible's teachings. There are many misunderstandings of life on which you and I need correction. Most of the cynics I know are uneducated in the Scriptures. Maybe they were forced as children to go to Sunday school. They have a little bit of knowledge and have turned on it. Basically, they are inarticulate as to what the Bible asserts. Perhaps you are in this position. You need to be convinced of your errors and then corrected and guided away from your error back to the truth of God's will for your life.

I remember back in 1980 when our family went skiing with our high school and college students at Mammoth. Our daughter Suzanne, then 12 years old, took a fall. She caught her thumb in her ski pole handle. The doctor's X-ray showed that it was broken. The doctor then told her, "What I'm going to do now will really hurt, but I have to correct your broken thumb by twisting it back into the correct bone formation." And he pulled and twisted! You should have seen the anguished look on her brave little face. Then the pain was over. He put on the cast. For the rest of her life, she had no physical reminder of her fracture. The correction worked. She was completely healed. The pain was worth it.

I have a finger I broke playing softball my freshman year in high school. I never went to a doctor. I never went through the pain of having it set right. To this day, I have a malformed finger that actually serves as a weathervane. It begins to ache as cold and rainy weather moves in on the Harbor Area.

Sometimes those corrections are painful, like the broken arm that has been allowed to heal without the proper medical attention and therefore has to be rebroken and reset.

I remember when I compound fractured my right leg skiing at Mammoth back in 1981. They put me in a toe to groin cast without any metal. The fear was that a plate and screws at the time of the break would make a person vulnerable to lifelong infection. Well, you can guess what happened. Given my size and the leverage of my movement around on crutches, within days, that leg came unset. I was taken to Hoag Hospital where a rectangular opening was sawed into my cast, the doctor corrected the positioning of the bones by leverage over the edge of the bed and X-rayed through the opening to be certain the alignment was right. It came unset again. Finally, they did surgery to hold it together with a plate and seven screws. That was a scary, painful experience, but the result was a lot better than limping around all my life on a misshapen leg.

There will be things in your life that will require restructuring. You will become aware of these areas as you dig into God's Word. The pain is worth it, for the ultimate effect is a daily personal friendship with God.

And the Scriptures are useful for training in righteousness.

This simply means that you need equipment for the Christian life. Your study of the Bible is not a selfish kind of thing. It is tied to the ongoing plan of Jesus for your life. Any change or conversion which makes you think of nothing but your own salvation is not a true change or conversion.

The careful study of Scripture produces action. That is what righteousness is. It is not just a one-way ticket to heaven. Some of us are downright selfish, worrying only about our own personal status with God. We couldn't care less about the world around us. That's like a selfish little child, unwilling to share their possessions with anyone else. You and I need instruction on how to live as God would have us live in personal purity, with an outgoing sense of responsibility to others.

You and I need instruction in righteousness. Frankly, the Bible gives this kind of instruction. The late Paul Tillich in his last book, titled My Search for Absolutes, states that, "the Ten Commandments. . . are, on the one hand, too abstract to cover any concrete situation and, on the other, not abstract enough to become general principles, but depend on the culture that produced them." The late columnist, Sydney J. Harris, took this statement by Tillich and added a further conclusion of his own: "Religion can provide the motivation for decent acts and attitudes toward others; it cannot supply a specific answer."

I have to disagree with these two men and others who are their successors with us today. Granted, the Bible does not speak clearly on every topic. But it does speak clearly on many. I don't like some of the things it says, because it tends to cramp my lifestyle. Yet, it does give excellent instruction in righteousness. When I take it seriously, it equips me to do good works.

You may be thinking, "Okay, I'll buy this business of the Scriptures being able to make me wise unto salvation, and the fact that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and that it is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and for training in righteousness. But, frankly, I just don't know how to study the Bible. I make big promises to God about how I will spend more time in His Word, and then nothing seems to happen. I don't follow through."

There are some real barriers to Bible study. There are legitimate time pressures that keep us from the Bible. Just the way some Bibles are printed is an obstruction to us using them. Many Bibles are notorious for their small print. Secular best sellers today, unless they are paperback, have larger print on easy-to-read paper. Some Bible versions turn poetry into prose. The books of the Bible are not arranged chronologically. Many of the New Testament epistles were written before Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. How can we ministers urge you to read the Bible without giving you adequate help as to who the authors were and the circumstances of the times in which the authors wrote?

On the other hand, do not allow these barriers to keep you away from the wonderfully rich encounter that can be yours with the Word of God. Purchase one of the fresh, new, modern versions, such as the New English Bible, Good News For Modern Men (Today's English Version), the New Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Version, the New King James Version, or, for a change of pace, try that wonderful paraphrase titled The Message. Take out a highlighter and begin to mark as you read. Look for something that speaks to you personally. Read with a sense of continuity. Don't approach the Bible hit or miss.

You are familiar with the classic story of the man who was in a jam and didn't know what to do. In desperation, he picked up the Bible. He didn't know where to turn, so he just flopped it open, closed his eyes and let his finger come down on a verse. The verse read, "Judas went out and hanged himself." Momentarily puzzled, the man reflected and came to the conclusion that that wasn't God's Word for him. So he closed the Bible and flipped it open once again, closed his eyes and brought his finger down indiscriminately on another verse. He looked down and read, "Go and do thou likewise." Getting a little concerned, he tried it one more time. Imagine his feelings when his finger came down on the verse, "What thou doest, do quickly!"

Be disciplined in your approach to the Bible. For example, take one book in the Bible and decide that you're going to study it over a period of time. Decide how many verses or chapters you're going to read each day. Begin your time of Bible reading with a brief prayer, asking God to give you a message for that day. And then read, trusting that he will bring something out that will provide spiritual nourishment.

Why not take the book of Proverbs and decide you're going to read one chapter a day for a week. You will be amazed at the reservoir of spiritual resources you will tap. Or begin with the Book of John or the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Romans. The important thing is to apply yourself systematically to the study of God's Word.

Perhaps you would enjoy the challenge of reading the entire Bible. I've done that every year but one in the last 25 years. It will not take much time each day, but will require discipline. You can buy a copy of the One Year Bible. I'm reading through that once again this year. Each day, there is a reading from the Old Testament, one from the New, and you go through the entire Book of Psalms twice and the Book of Proverbs once. Already, I'm halfway through the Book of Joshua, halfway through the Book of Luke, I'm somewhere around the ninetieth Psalm and a third of the way through the Book of Proverbs. Another way is to commit yourself to read two chapters a day in the Old Testament and one chapter a day in the New Testament. Doing this, you will complete the entire Bible in about one year. Each day, I ask God for something new and fresh for that day. I find the discipline tough, but the outcome is spiritually exhilarating!

Why should I take the time to study the Bible?

What's the result of all this? Paul writes to Timothy that it is ". . . so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work." One translation says, "thoroughly furnished." You know, there's nothing emptier than a brand new house without furniture, carpeting or draperies. There is nothing emptier than the life of a Christian who is not in the process of becoming ". . . proficient, equipped for every good work." These times demand God's equipment, God's furnishings, God's wisdom. They are yours simply for the taking!

The measure of your life should be not how it begins, but how it ends and what you've done with it in the intervening time from when you received Jesus Christ as Savior.

A friend of mine died a week ago Friday. His name was Dr. Clyde Cook, the just-retired president of Biola University. Let me read to you these words written by his successor, Barry Corey, describing Dr. Cook.

Many of you spent some of your Biola days with Dr. Cook as your president. He exhorted you in your work, in your service, in chapel, and in the classroom. He talked with you on the sidewalk. He ate with you in the café. He modeled for you the love of a husband for his wife Anna Belle, a father for his children, Laura and Craig, and a grandfather for his six grandchildren.

Clyde Cook prayed for you and prayed with you. He made you think and he made you laugh. He was approachable. He was funny. He was there. He pointed your horizons beyond the petty stuff and challenged you to think of the big world outside of Biola as a place God wants to redeem. He believed in you and he loved you.

For 25 years, he gave of himself for Biola. Clyde Cook embodied Biola, its heritage, its values, its high calling as a biblically centered university. When people across the country and around the world saw Clyde Cook, they saw Biola.

After returning from speaking at a Bible institute in Houston on Friday, Dr. Cook was at home with his wife Anna Belle when he passed away and entered the presence of the Lord. The final address he would give was the evening prior, Thursday night. He wasn't feeling well, Anna Belle told me, but he stepped up the microphone and with the strength that could only come from the Lord, he gave his address and ended with words that went something like this:

The final quality I believe every student must have to make an impact is to ENDURE CONSTANTLY. We want our. . .students to hang in there. We don't want them to quit. We want them to persevere. To keep moving. Or as the apostle Paul has written, 'And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.' If we are normal, we will have moments when we want to quit. My word to all of us is, "Don't quit." The Lord will help you through the crisis or pressure.

Clyde Cook lived the words he proclaimed on Thursday night. And on Friday night he heard, "Well done."

There is nothing more than this I want said about me when I die. God's dreams for you and me are not those of spectacular accomplishments, even those of building big, successful churches. Jesus put it bluntly in Luke 9:25 when He says, "But what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul."

I challenge you to be a person of the Book, a person who daily reads and studies the Bible and then claims the help of the Holy Spirit to apply its truths practically in your life on a daily basis. That will enable you to persevere, not quit, to stand strong through crises and pressures of life until your moment comes to step into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then He will look you directly in the eyes and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your eternal rest!"