Stewardship of truth

I want to turn with you first of all to the book of Titus, chapter 1. As you can see from the outlines, we're going to be taking up the stewardship of the truth of God tonight. And there's a handout that goes along with it on a little bit of information on studying methods. I probably won't have opportunity to really look at that with you in the meeting.

I may be able to make a few comments at the end, but if not, you can just look it over and maybe gather a few hints at least from study methods that I have enjoyed. So in looking at the stewardship of the truth of God, we're going to be focusing first of all upon those who are charged with the responsibility of upholding the word of God, of teaching the word of God, and of shepherding the people of God using the truth of God. So we're going to make reference to those who are called bishops here or overseers.

Titus, chapter 1, just to notice in the first verse it says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after or according to godliness. And then notice down in verse 7, this is in reference to qualifications for elders. It says, for a bishop, that is an overseer, must be blameless as a steward of God.

Not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince or convict the gainsayers, that is those who contradict the truth of God. Again over in chapter 2 there's a reference to Titus as being an example.

It says, in all things, this is 2 in verse 7, in all things showing thyself or presenting thyself a pattern of good works. In doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. Now let's read in Hebrews chapter 13 as well.

There's similar language. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 7 says, Remember them which have the rule over you, and that's literally remember your guides or your leaders who have spoken the word unto you, the word of God, whose faith follow, that is imitate, considering the end of their conversation or the outcome of their conduct or way of life. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

Verse 17 says, Obey them that have the rule over you, and again it's really the same expression. Obey your leaders or guides and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. I might as well read in Luke chapter 12 as well.

These are just references to the concept of stewardship and the relationship to the truth of God. Luke chapter 12, and the context of it is from verse 35 down, speaking about His return, and then it says, Verse 40, Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto Him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us or even unto all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, or set over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. And then we have some contrasts in the following verses of a false steward, in verse 45 and 46, and verse 47 we have an unfaithful servant, and let's just read that, And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes.

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I'm just going to make a few comments on what we have read before we look in some of the other passages.

Now unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, concerning spiritual gifts, likewise in looking at this stewardship of the truth of God, I'm really just going to be giving you a sketch through some of the scriptures that draw attention to the significance and the importance of our stewardship of the truth of God. What has been entrusted to us? Well really it is the revelation of God. And that revelation of God, as we're going to notice in a few minutes, is supremely Christ.

He is God manifest in flesh. He is the truth. And he made that declaration himself.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. So when we find in Titus chapter 1 where we started, the truth which is according to godliness. Now if I were to ask you the question, what's the difference between truth and facts? Well, in one sense they should be the same, right? But facts are just sort of amoral.

They're neither moral or immoral, they're just the facts. It's just the information. But whenever you get the word truth, especially as it's given to us in the Bible, it is rooted in morality.

It can never be separated from moral values. If I can put it another way, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the ultimate truth, the ultimate reality. He is the eternal made flesh, the eternal made visible.

And everything, every moral principle is derived from what he is. What he is determines truth, morality, values. And that is why our culture today is in such a mess.

Because they have tried to establish a different foundation for reality, a foundation of chance, of meaninglessness. And so they cannot at the same time enforce morality and teach you that there is no basis in reality for morality. If you are nothing but chance, a few molecules accumulated without any reason, without any purpose, without any meaning, without any intent, how can you possibly have a moral reason for anything? It doesn't exist.

It's very interesting that even a man like Richard Dawkins, although he is one of the most bitter opponents of Christianity, yet he calls himself, I forget what term he uses, but he says, in morality I'm a Christian. What does he mean? He means that he recognizes that those are the right morals for human beings. In fact, he even goes so far as to say that even though we're just evolutionary junk, that has somehow become something.

He says we can rebel against our genes and be something better than just that selfish wolf. Well, that's nonsense. If we have a struggle because we see evil and we sense evil even within ourselves, we have the challenge of proclaiming truth and morality that is related while we struggle with morality ourselves.

That's our problem because we have evil still within us. But our conscience registers the truth that what we read in the scriptures is right. And let me just emphasize again, the truth that has been entrusted to us from God himself is a truth, as it expresses, that is according to godliness, that is according to the very character of God.

And so then the challenge for any of us who try to teach, who try to oversee, who try to lead among the people of God with such a heritage entrusted to us of God's truth, the biggest challenge that we have is to live in that truth. So I want to insist on something tonight. We use the word pattern, and I'm going to be referring to it, and speaking about the evangelist pattern, the pattern for the assembly, and so on.

We use that over and over again, at least I certainly have throughout my Christian life heard it many times. But I want you to understand that the pattern is not just on paper. The pattern is in the people.

Every shepherd, every elder, overseer, whatever term you're going to use, of those who lead among God's people become a pattern. And so as we speak the word of God, we are always challenged to be honest, to be genuine, to be what we are teaching. So the exhortation to the overseer in Titus chapter 1 is that we must be blameless as a steward of God.

There is something bigger than myself involved, something greater than myself. It is the truth of God himself. In Hebrews where we read, there is an encouragement for the believers to remember for those who have taught us the word of God.

You know, there's been a lot of changes in assembly life in the last number of years. A lot of people rethinking, re-evaluating what we've been taught. That's actually healthy to some degree.

But at the same time, don't just erase or reject everything that is in the past. Because the one thing that I will acknowledge about a past generation is that there was a faithfulness, a godliness, even if they weren't always completely accurate in some of the opinions that they enforced. But there was a basic godliness that is essential.

And that's what is missing today. That's what we're losing today is that sense of God, that recognition of God, that everything in the scriptures matters because it's his truth. It's his principles.

Now, in Luke chapter 12, the context of it is given. It's in the Jewish context, if you'll read it through and so on. But certainly it applies to us even as Peter asked, well, who are you talking to, Lord? Are you talking to us or are you talking to everybody by this parable about the Lord coming back and the servants being found doing what they're supposed to be doing when the Lord returns.

And so then he gives this further expansion of the parable from verse 42 down. And he mentions this important thing. Verse 42, Who then is that faithful and wise steward? If there is one thing that the Lord expects from every one of us, it's faithfulness.

To be faithful to what he has entrusted to us. Now I want to take you to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and we're going to look a little more at what he has entrusted to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul is speaking to them about his preaching.

And he mentions at the end of chapter 1 that Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And then he begins to talk about wisdom and the contrast of the wisdom of the world. Verse 5, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect or full-grown, yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to naught or to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.

But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. And then it mentions the Spirit of God revealing in verse 12, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now in this passage there is a conflict that is brought to our attention.

A conflict of the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world. Now when you read through some of these verses right through probably the first three chapters of 1st Corinthians you might get the idea that God doesn't have much use for wisdom. Why is there a conflict discussed? What does he have against wisdom? Well obviously, God is not against wisdom by itself.

He is the all-wise God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What he has against what he calls man's wisdom or the wisdom of the world is that wisdom which rejects God.

Which disdains the revelation of God and seeks to establish a new reality with God not in the picture. So that's what God has against it. Because if you take God out of the picture nothing makes sense.

Nothing has its true meaning or value when God is thrown out of the picture. He must be the center of it. And so it is man in his proud rebellion against God and the knowledge of God that God holds in contempt in which God says that he will destroy the wisdom of the wise.

I don't think there's any question today that we are in a tremendous battle when it comes to philosophy, when it comes to ideas. Interestingly, when the gospel first began the first opponent to the gospel was Jewish unbelief. They persecuted the apostles.

Paul himself was part of that persecution. But as the gospel moved out from the Jewish to the Gentile world the next level of opposition against the revelation of God in Christ was the wisdom of the world. Pagan mysticism.

Greek philosophy. And if you have ever read any books which trace the development of philosophy from the Greek culture to the present you would be astounded at how much of Western culture is actually built upon Greek philosophy. And how much there is a continuous ladder of influence of men who have thought up their ideas, their versions of reality, their explanations of life and that's been adopted and carried forward and so on.

And we face that challenge very significantly today. You know, I think it would be fair to say that for most people in our culture the Bible is no longer the authority of truth. It's science.

If someone says it's been scientifically shown that or if someone speaks as a scientist it is given more credibility, more authority in the minds of many people than if you quote them a verse from the Bible. And that's a sad, sad reality. Looking back on the battleground of ideas it used to be that those who were opposed to God were forced to reason and to argue in terms of the Bible because it was acknowledged as the basis of understanding and wisdom.

But that's not true anymore. You start talking to someone today about sin and they look at you as if what's that to me? That's your belief. That's your framework, not mine.

Talk about God, well, what's that to me? And so there is a tremendous challenge to even have a basis for argument, reasoning, and conversing with people today. But where it becomes particularly difficult for us as Christians for our own understanding and living is more in the realm of psychology. Because in what we call the soft sciences, which are not so much concerned with chemical facts, although chemistry gets involved in psychology as well, but again, and I'm just going to give you a quote, I can't even remember who it is that made this statement, but he was a psychiatrist himself, not a Christian or a believer in God.

But he made this observation. He says that just about the time when psychiatrists are abandoning a certain concept, a certain idea, the church is jumping on the bandwagon. And the unfortunate thing is this, and I'm just using the term church in a general sense of professing Christianity, it's as if the church has been trying to catch on to the world's coattail to find some credibility and still maintain some kind of a claim of knowledge of God.

That's because the foundation for true knowledge has been taken away. Largely, evolution is that difference. And that changes all of the groundwork of what is considered truth.

But I want you to just think of it in this way. It was the same problem that the apostles faced. As the gospel went out into the pagan world, what happened there is not only was their opposition directly because of the many gods that they had opposed to the true God, but there was also Gnosticism, which claimed to have special knowledge, and they didn't just simply oppose Christianity, they sought to amalgamate Christian concepts with their own philosophy.

That's what Colossians is teaching against. And so we are facing that today in a very, very significant way. What concepts do we hear mostly today? Well, we hear things like self-esteem, self-worth.

Are those Christian concepts? Are they part of the wisdom of the world? It's very difficult to discern what basis is being used for how you think of yourself. Again, what we have to keep coming back to is that there is a true foundation, and that true foundation is God, what he is, and who we are as related to God. And so in this passage, then, he begins to speak about the wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom.

What is he talking about? He's not simply talking about some kind of mysterious, speculative kind of wisdom. He is talking about secrets that the eternal God has kept treasured up within himself, but in the bringing in of Christ into the world, God has now made plain the opening up of his deepest secrets. And so when he says here, the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

Now, if you think about that, that should be quite an incentive for you to want to know what's in the Bible for you. What has been revealed in Christ is something treasured up in the eternal God from before the creation of the universe, and it's for our glory. It's for our eternal blessing.

And then he goes on to speak about the eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. What he's getting at here is that what these secrets are is not something that you could gain an understanding of by observation of creation or through the faculty of reasoning, which God has given to us that capability. It depends upon God making his mind known.

So what are these secrets? Well, they focus upon Christ, first of all, as being the revelation of God. God manifest in flesh, but it doesn't end there. It embraces Christ and the church.

It embraces that great relationship into which we are being formed to be part of. And that is that in the ages to come, God is going to be known and understood most fully through Christ and the church. In that bridegroom and bride relationship, Christ and the church as his body.

And it's in that relationship that he is saying the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Now, I'm going to be getting into this more tomorrow night in beginning to look at the subject of relationships, but just enough to emphasize this, that the truth of God is a person. It's Christ, essentially.

And the stewardship of truth that has been communicated to us is to be enjoyed and experienced in relationship with Christ. That's how we're going to enter into and appreciate and enjoy the fullness of what he has. Now, again, it emphasizes that we have received the spirit of God, and so we have a perfect connection to the eternal God.

The spirit of God, who is God himself, communicates the truth of God. It has been revealed to the apostles and the prophets of the New Testament. We now have it in our New Testament.

But then not only that, but we have received the spirit to understand. And he says, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but that which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now, why this is significant is because it's very important that we study the Word of God, that we learn even the very terms that are used of the Gospel, the terms like justification, the terms like reconciliation, redemption, terms such as sanctification.

We need to meditate, understand, and grasp these important scriptural terms. One of the things that is happening in some of the modern translations is that they are jettisoning these terms and replacing them sometimes with expressions that really don't have the same accuracy or force in them. And so there's a lot of issues today, and I'm not going to really get into the issues relating to translations of Scripture, but just to think of this, God has communicated His truth in words.

So words themselves are important. And when you change the terms that you use to discuss a problem, you change your understanding of the problem. Let me just give you an example.

If we say that drunkenness is sin, well, that leads us to one kind of understanding of that issue. If we say that alcoholism is a disease, well, that changes the framework of your thinking about the problem. And so that's what does happen, and that's what has happened in our culture.

Terms have been changed, and so the understanding of issues also changes. But unless we recognize sin as it really is in human life, we won't be able to provide the real solution to the problems that sin has caused. Now, I want to touch on, I'll just drop back to Matthew chapter 28, and some of this is likely very familiar to most of you, but there are some significant things just to notice in these.

In Matthew chapter 28, and this is where we get the idea of a pattern, the Lord Jesus has been raised from the dead. He has brought his disciples way to Galilee to meet with them, and he is commissioning them to go and preach the gospel. Matthew 28 and 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power, all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now, the word teach there is really to make disciples. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world or the end of the age. Amen.

So what is our mandate? We could call this the missionary mandate. We call it the great commission. The mandate of the evangelist.

There is an idea today, that it seems very popular, that we're just to focus on just preaching the gospel. And that we should be able to get rid of all our differences among churches, among different groups, and unite together for the sake of the gospel and evangelize. Now, I would have to admit that there are times when I have been very, very saddened as I think about how divided Christians really are.

And how much more powerful the testimony for the name of the Lord Jesus could be if every Christian and every group that claimed the name of Christ were truly united. And that everyone who heard the gospel got the same message. The same truth.

What is the mandate? The mandate is to make disciples. It is more than getting people to make professions of faith in Christ. Obviously, that initial reality is the absolutely essential foundation.

But that isn't where our responsibility ends in dealing with people. Our responsibility is to lead them into discipleship. To become followers of Christ.

To acknowledge the one who is Lord of all. All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth. That's a tremendous claim to divine authority.

I'll just give you a little story I don't want to take too much time. But I was preaching, giving some ministry in the assembly in Arnstein a few years ago. And there was a dear man that came in.

He was a little confused about what we believe in the gospel halls. He wasn't sure whether he was even allowed to come to our meetings because we had a closed fellowship, as he said. So I explained to him that he was very, very welcome and tried to explain what that was supposed to be all about.

But anyway, as he talked to me after, and I take it that he was genuinely a Christian. He was from Egypt. And he was involved in some church group, several church groups.

He was actually involved in an evangelistic mission. And he was going back on a mission to the Middle East. And so he was sort of just trying to debate with me a little bit about this whole idea of our isolation and so on.

And he said, now wouldn't it be so much better if instead of there being the gospel hall and there being this church and that church and this community, if we just could get together and just preach the gospel? I said, yes, it certainly would be wonderful. I said, let's just put it into this scenario. And so we go to a community center, a neutral place, and we preach the gospel and the Lord graciously blesses and he saves a good number of people.

Now what are we going to do with them? Well, what are we going to do with them? And after I explained the issue, the problem of, we're supposed to make disciples, but do we have the same recipe? Do we have the same pattern? Are we using the same pattern to make disciples? And then he acknowledged, which is kind of ironical, that where he was involved, they were forbidden to even teach baptism because that was controversial. Because of the supporting churches, not everybody agreed on it, either the mode of baptism or even about baptism. And so they were restricted to only preaching the gospel strictly, nothing more.

And so here we have the perennial problem that we have as Christians today. If we want to have a wide net and be able to be united with everybody, we become so restricted on what we can preach and teach. That's unfortunate.

Our mandate is to let the truth of God dictate who we associate with, what fellowship we have. Let his truth be the centerpiece of it. And that comes out again in Acts 2, where we have the foundation of truth for the assembly.

Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is into association with the triune God in the New Testament revelation, teaching them to observe some things, all things, all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Now in Acts chapter 2, I'm really just going to draw attention to that first expression, Acts 2, 41 and 42.

When you have the first assembly established, verse 41 says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in the fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in the prayers. Now I know that it is not easy today.

It never has been easy, but it is always a challenge to hold God's truth in a balanced way. But I don't think we can avoid the reality that when it comes to assembly gatherings and the truth of what an assembly is, it is linked, it is tied to the apostles' doctrine. So I would describe the fellowship that we seek to support and encourage as a doctrinal fellowship.

Again, I'll just make a comment about a dear brother who left the group that he was with and came to us in Timmins, where we were at the time, for a couple of years and then decided we were a little bit too restrictive and went on his way again. But he made this comment about the time that he was leaving when he was disputing our emphasis on doctrine. And he said, you know when I talk to someone of this religious group or that religious group, he says, we don't discuss doctrine.

We just talk about Christ. Now that sounds nice. But you can't separate the person from his principles.

Would it do any good to say, I really like you, but I don't want anything to do with your principles. The doctrinal fellowship recognizes the person and his principles. And even though that's difficult to maintain today, that is our stewardship.

That is our responsibility. Now let's go over to 1 Timothy and we'll see how the link is made both with our personal life and with the assembly life. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Now Paul is writing to Timothy who was left at Ephesus and he says in verse 3, 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 3, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou might charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith so do. Now the end of the commandment or you could put that in another term, the aim of the charge. It's the sense of a charge.

Is charity, that is the word love, out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some having swerved to have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law and so on. If you notice this, there's a few important terms here where you get this expression godly edifying. Actually the word stewardship is in there.

It is a stewardship of God. And so he is saying, I left you at Ephesus so that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Not to give heed to these fables which minister questions, which actually create questioning, questioning, questioning, speculation instead of the stewardship of God.

Now what is the aim of this charge? It is so that the truth of God which has been given to us might be unadulterated, unmixed by any other kind of teaching, philosophy, or idea mixed in. Why? Because, here's what it says, the end of the commandment or the aim of this charge is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. In other words, if God's truth is taught to us effectively, if we absorb it and let it have its impact and effect in our lives, it will produce love.

Now this is a very, very precious and important connection. The purpose of this truth of God is to reproduce the life of God. That life is love.

There is nothing more pure, more beneficial than God's love. That's what he wants to see reproduced in us. But he says here, it needs to come out of a pure heart.

So that's why we can't just talk about love and forget doctrine, because love is rooted in truth. It's in harmony with truth. It embraces truth.

And purity of heart, genuineness, sincerity, is an essential. A pure heart, a good conscience, and an unhypocritical faith. Those are the conditions that we need within us to produce this life of love.

And so the truth of God, then, is very clearly related to Christian living. Over in chapter 3, in reference to the deacons, it mentions in verse 9, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. I don't know about you, but I find for myself, if my conscience is not clear, if I do not have a good conscience, it's very, very difficult to preach.

Very difficult to teach. Difficult to speak with conviction. We lose the confidence that we have.

We lose the moral authority within our being to speak God's truth. And that's one of the big challenges that are given in this epistle. Verse 14, he says, These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou or how one ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And then verse 16 really is giving an expansion of what he means by the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Now it's not too hard to figure out that that's talking about the Lord Jesus. So what do we have to do with him? The assembly exists for our blessing and benefit and preservation.

That's all true. But the assembly exists to uphold the truth about Christ. To be that pillar, to be that base of the wonderful truth God personally revealed to humanity in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The mystery of godliness. So it shouldn't be any stretch of thinking or reasoning that godliness should be the defining character of an assembly. And very simply, that's why everything matters.

That's why my behavior matters. That you might know how one ought to behave in the house of God. This is God's house, God's household, where whatever we do reflects upon him.

Christ has brought to earth a glimpse of heaven. He has brought into this world the life of God to be known, to be recognized, that life is being reproduced in us. That's the glory of the gospel.

The glory of the gospel is that it's not just that we know about God, but that in salvation we are born of God. We are given the life that is of God. And that life is intended to be manifested in godliness.

Godly character. So the next chapter is really a very important chapter for anyone who seeks to teach, to shepherd, to guide, to help God's people. Timothy is exhorted to become a good minister of Jesus Christ.

And then he says, in verse 6 of chapter 4, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine. So let's never, never forget. We cannot coast on what we have known.

We cannot coast on what a past generation has known of God and of the truth of God. Every generation becomes responsible to receive as a stewardship, as a sacred trust, the truth of Christ. To live out his principles.

To uphold him. To proclaim him. And in fact you could, I think it's down on the outline here, you could put the pastoral epistles together with this little connection.

First Timothy is the charge to protect the truth. Second Timothy is a challenge to proclaim the truth. In the midst of opposition, when you come to Titus, because of the poor behavior of the people on Crete, it was a caution to practice the truth.

The truth has been given to us. We're to protect it. We're to proclaim it.

We're to practice it. Now my time is gone. Second Timothy continues this emphasis and leaves the charge to preach the word.

Be instant in season, out of season. We are given the resources of the word of God. Maybe I should just read that to you.

Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction or training in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect or complete, throughly furnished or completely equipped unto all good works. And that passage has been important for myself in recognizing that whatever my personal limitations may be, my personal inadequacies may be, there is in the word of God an adequate resource to equip me to be able to teach and counsel and fulfill the word of God, the work of God. And we must take that as an encouragement to us.

We may need to learn a few things in our own lives before we can handle it in teaching others. But the word of God is sufficient for us to make us competent to be counselors for God, those who can help people in their need and enable them to know God as He is. Shall we pray? Our Father, we would draw near to Thee, giving thanks to Thee for the tremendous revelation that has been given.

We cannot really imagine what our own understanding of Thee would be without Christ, without Him having come into the world and making Thee known in the wonder of the work of the cross. Our Father, we sense that Thine heart is open. Thou art for us.

Thou hast given to us great promises of being brought into this tremendous relationship of the body of Christ and to be related to Christ and to enjoy Him forever. Help us to recognize and appreciate the stewardship of truth that has been given to us. And we seek Thy wisdom and Thy guidance, Thy help to proclaim it, to protect it, to practice it today in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.