Introduction

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.

My dad is a mechanic and a craftsman and I grew up in and around the shop.  One of the measures of a craftsman is the accuracy of their cuts.  I’ve heard an old English proverb repeated many times in the shop and out on the job site: “Measure Twice, Cut Once.”  In other words: double check your measurements before you make a mistake that you can’t undo.

Paul said to Timothy, “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 expression in this passage translated “rightly handling” in the Greek literally means “cutting it straight.”  “Rightly handling” is a reference to the exact detail demanded in such trades as carpentry, masonry and Paul’s trade as a tent-maker and leather worker.    Cutting straight lines is expected of a skilled tradesman.

Paul is making a direct connection to the man who teaches God’s Word.  He is emphatic that precision and accuracy are essential when we are interpreting and teaching the Word of God.  One of the most important measures of a church, is how accurately they handle God’s Word.  It is the heavy responsibility of every person who handles the Bible at this church, to handle it carefully and accurately.

Sloppy workmanship for a conscientious craftsman is embarrassing and might cost him his job.  In verse 15, Paul implies that sloppy workmanship for a Bible teacher gives him something to be ashamed about and then he says it will “upset” the faith of his hearers.  Look down to verse 18.

Paul is speaking of two false teachers named Hymenaeus and Philetus.  He says that they “have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.”  “Upsetting” is literally what that word means, but in English “upsetting” doesn’t pack much of a punch.  In English, “upsetting” mean to annoy or bother. Paul wasn’t saying that Hymenaeus and Philetus were being annoying.  He was saying that they were being deadly.

The word for translated as “upsetting” in the ESV was meant to conjure up a vision more like this one.  Remember this story.  The captain ran his cruise ship aground and then took off and let the passengers fend for themselves.  At least 30 people died in this accident.

The Greek word that means “to overthrow, overturn, destroy.”   It is the picture of the man who is responsible for sinking a boat, causing it to capsize and thus throwing the passengers into the ocean.  That description might bring new meaning to the verse.  Let’s reread it: they “have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting 

What is the right way to handle God’s Word?  In a word, ‘carefully.’  The Bible compares itself to a sword.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…” Have you ever had a really sharp knife?  Is it something you played with?  Would you give it to a baby to chew on?  No you respected that knife! God’s Word is like a sword.  It is not made to be played around with.  It’s not a toy.  Paul is telling us to use the Bible intentionally and carefully and skillfully.  Swords are made for warfare.  They cut and hack. They penetrate and divide.

The Word of God was not written to conjure up sentimental feelings.  It’s not intended to entertain us.

The purpose of God’s Word is to conquer souls and subject them to the authority of Jesus Christ.

The Bible was written to penetrate men’s heart (justification) and to hack away at their sin (sanctification).

When the church uses God’s Word for its intended purpose, people see Jesus when we gather and when we teach. When we use the word correctly, we are a church that is Bible saturated and Christ-centered.  When people come, they hear the Lord Jesus calling them out of their sin (penetrates their hearts) and leading them to repentance (because it hacks away sin).

In our study of Romans 7, we saw that God’s law reveals sin.  Romans 7:7 says, “⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”  Whereas the law was not a blueprint for how we could earn our own salvation, it does show us our need for a Savior.  Then it shows us how to find that Savior.

The eternal, creator God wrote us a book… In the contents of this book we find everything we need to know about this life and everything we need to know about the next life.

• How else would we know how to find Jesus if we didn’t have God’s Word…
• How else would we know how to be saved if we didn’t have God’s Word?!
• Do you and I really understand what a treasure it is to us?

King David said: I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. Ps 119:162

It’s better than finding treasure in your attic.  It is to be more greatly prized than the most valuable treasure on earth…If you had a great treasure, you’d handle it carefully… God’s word is so valuable because without it, we’d be lost

We are lost without God’s Word – Psalm 119:105

God’s word is our light.  His Word gives us enough light so we can see the dangers, know our immediate enemies and to take the next step on our spiritual journey.  Ps 119:105 says:

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

In the ancient Middle east, there were no lamp posts, so each person who travelled at night needed to bring with them their own oil lamp.  Someone here at our church gave me a 2000 year old, Hebrew oil lamp a couple of weeks ago. These lamps by their nature, gave the traveler just enough light to stay on the path.  Without the lamp, the traveler would be in danger of walking off the road or into a pit or walking into an open sewer or tripping over a pile of manure (which littered their roads in those days).  People who walk in darkness (both literally and spiritually) will sooner or later begin to stumble and fall over nasty things along the way.

To the ancient Hebrew, ‘God’s Word being a lamp’ was a highly relevant word picture of the spiritual path they were on in a dark world.  The hope we can hold on to is that in the darkness, scripture points the way, lights up the path and keeps us from stepping into things that we might later regret.

The purpose of the light of God’s Word isn’t for us to be impressed with its brilliance but to be guided by its instruction one step at a time. 

I often ask people who are going through a difficult trial, “what is the next step?”  You might not know every step you need to take for the whole rest of the journey, but God’s word shines brightly enough to reveal the next step.  God’s indwelling Spirit gives us enough courage to take that next step and then to depend on Him for additional instructions from there.

So how do we rightly handle this precious treasure from our creator?  Let’s look back at our text to find some answers…

How to Rightly Handle God’s Word

^15a Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed…

We rightly handle God’s word:

#1 By Diligently Pursuing Jesus

When the ESV says “do your best” that Greek word means “to exert one’s self, endeavor, give diligence” to a task.  It’s not at all lackadaisical (Well, I did my best).  There is great intentionality with this word in the Greek.  It would be accurate to translate the phrase, “Give your absolute, very best effort and then some.”  Then we hand it all over to a God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)

We would never teach here that you are saved by your works.  That’s a false doctrine. Good works do not produce saving faith, but saving faith always produces good works. Good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation.  Who is the root?  Jesus.

However, there has been an issue within the church since the beginning that some people use a perceived assurance of salvation as an excuse to do nothing:  A believer could be so convinced they are saved that they reason, “I am safe from Hell so there is no longer a need to watch or fight or put out any exertion at all.  My battle is fought.  My victory is won.  I’m just along for the ride.”

This text, as well as many others in the New Testament, is clear that discipleship will take considerable exertion.  Salvation was a free gift, but sanctification requires a lot of hard work.  Paul is calling each one of us to “do our best.”

Go to our text in 2 Timothy, and skip ahead to verse 19. Paul says:  “…God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal.”  What is the firm foundation of our faith?  Read on: “The Lord knows who are His.”

In other words, there is nothing that can separate a child of God from His Almighty grasp.  That’s assurance of Salvation.  But it doesn’t stop there… “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

“Departing from iniquity” is the hard work of discipleship! Helping you to cut out sin (that entangles you and I from spiritual growth) is one of the purposes of God’s Word. Referring back to Romans 7:7 again, Paul said, “…if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”  God’s Word is like a microscope that magnifies sin that may have otherwise been undetected.

We rightly handle God’s word:

#2 By Using God’s Word to Identify Sin

I’ve heard people say, “I know what the Bible says, but you don’t know my situation.”  This often happens in marriage counseling. (Give Examples…)

• I know the Bible says that I should really respect my husband, but you don’t know how childishly he behaves…
• I know the Bible says that I should love my wife, but you don’t know how difficult that woman is to live with…

A church that rightly handles God’s Word would never let those statement slide.  The Bible was never intended to be ignored when “real life” hits.  It is a sword.  Its purpose is to penetrate hearts and to destroy sin!

Here’s why: Sin produces regrets.  Sin separates us from God’s blessing.  It’s our desire to be the kind of church that produces workers that have no need to be ashamed.

James compares the Bible to a mirror.  James 1:23-24 says,“²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” We look into God’s word and it reflects back to us all the things that honor God and all those things that do not.  Throughout the New Testament, we are exhorted as believers that we no longer need to be a slave to our sin because Christ came to set us free.

• We are free to pursue righteousness.
• We are free to serve God!
• We’re free to pursue activities that produce God’s blessing in our lives – that have eternal benefits.

Romans 6:22 says:  …now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life

We use God’s word in the lives of believers to help them to CUT OUT SIN!  TO DESTROY SIN!  Sin is deadly – like cancer – and needs to be cut out so it won’t hurt people any more.  AND… so each person can experience the Joy of the Lord.  David says in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the law of the Lord.”  We want you to experience God’s blessing, not the wages of sin.  The very best thing you could ever do is to follow Christ and to heap up mounds of God’s blessing as you obey His Word.

We rightly handle God’s word:

#3 By using the Bible as the Center for Kingdom Conversations

I talked with a Buddhist several months ago who said that his Buddhist temple would often invite the Mormons over to have debates.  What a waste of time that meeting would be! You’ll never see us stage a debate like that in one of our services because debating the merits of a false teaching like Mormonism against the false teaching of Buddhism is irreverent babble.    Look at verse 16:

¹⁶ But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

Irreverent babble in the Greek means “empty discussion, discussion of vain and useless matters.”  It’s far better for the church to be a place where, together, we make a really big deal about Jesus.  The people who make up this local church fellowship come from all kinds of different backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common:   Jesus!

Canyon is the kind of church that encourages kingdom conversations in every meeting and event.  You will rarely see a meeting of any size at any level at this church where the Word of God is not opened and discussed.  We are a church with an open Bible.  As a Bible church, we believe the center of every Sunday morning teaching, every small group meeting, every discussion group, every prayer meeting, every counseling session should be the Word of God.

We don’t take ourselves too seriously here, but we take the pursuit of Christ and the study of His word very seriously.

Life Application

Ultimately, as a Church, we want each one of you to “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.”

How does that happen?

1. Be a diligent student of the Word
2. Use the Word of God to cut out sin
3. Obey God’s commands and then enjoying God’s blessings

We want to help you do those things.  Canyon wants to stand with you in the process of discipleship.

Prayer

Let’s end our time by praying for this new church and the other churches here in our area who endeavor to rightly handle the Word of Truth.

Teaching OUtline

The purpose of God’s Word is to conquer souls and subject them to the authority of Jesus Christ. – Romans 7:7, Psalm 119:162

We are lost without God’s Word – Psalm 119:105

The purpose of the light of God’s Word is not for us to be impressed with its brilliance but to be guided by its instruction one step at a time. 

#1 By Diligently Pursuing Jesus  – Ephesians 3:20, 2 Timothy 2:19-20, Romans 7:7b

#2 By Using God’s Word to Identify Sin – James 1:23-24, Romans 6:22, Psalm 1

#3 By using the Bible as the Center for Kingdom Conversations – 2 Timothy 2:16

Application

1. Be a diligent student of the Word
2. Use the Word of God to cut out sin
3. Obey God’s commands and then enjoying God’s blessings