Introduction:

Dover First Baptist Church stands without apology for the Bible. It is God’s Word and our perfect foundation for faith and living. It is the most important factor of our Awasa program. We believe as the Apostle Paul that from a child it is essential to know the Holy Scriptures because the Bible makes one wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Ever since the close of the completion of God’s word to humanity, evil men have tried to destroy this living truth and guide for our lives. They have all failed. Two hundred years ago, Voltaire said, “Fifty years from now, the world will hear no more of the Bible.” 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used his house and his press to print Bibles. In that very year the British Museum paid the Russian government a half a million dollars for one copy of one Greek manuscript. And in that very year, the first edition of Voltaire’s book sold on a Paris bookstore counter for less than eight cents. We have contemporary famous people who were skeptic of Christianity and the BIBLE.

Thomas Paine, in The Age of Reason, 200 years ago, presented his genius. He felt his arguments would destroy forever the Bible. He predicted that in a few years the Bible would be out of print. On returning to America, he boasted, and I quote, “When I get through, there will not be five Bibles left in America.

C. S. Lewis an Oxford Scholar life turned around after he investigated the truths of scripture.

Lee Strobel – American Christian Apologetic author. He has written several books, including four which received ECPA Christian Book Awards (1994, 1999, 2001, 2005)[4] and a series which addresses challenges to a Biblically inerrant view of Christianity.[5]

Kirk Cameron an American actor was an atheist in his early teens. When he was 17, during the height of his career on Growing Pains, he became a born-again Christian…

My favorite is the story of Josh Mc’Dowell. He accepted a friend’s challenge… mostly out of spite to prove them wrong. He was convinced the Christian story would not stand up to evidence. Josh Mc’Dowell spent months in research to disprove the claims of Christianity. Josh said, “I was a prelaw student, and I knew something about evidence. I decided to start with the Bible. I knew that if I could uncover indisputable evidence that the Bible is an unreliable record, the whole of Christianity would crumble. I even dropped out of school for a time to study in the historically rich libraries of Europe. And I found evidence in abundance. Evidence I would not have believed with my own eyes. Finally I could come to only one conclusion: If I were to remain intellectually honest, I had to admit that the Old and New Testament documents were some of the most reliable writings in all of antiquity.
The bible clashes today with the moral¬ity of our culture and is not “politically correct. Therefore much of the world believes the bible to be obsolete and even a book of hate. Paul charges timothy to hold fast to the truth of god’s word and we must do so too.

I. Hold Fast to God’s Word (3:14 -15).

1. He says, “Now, Timothy, you continue in the things you’ve learned, do not deviate remain fixed, hold fast, don’t move no matter what the pressure, no matter what the difficulty. Evil may increase, don’t you compromise. Neither should we! You’ve been a disciple continue in what you’ve learned.

2. Timothy was to hold his convictions because he was to recall from whom he learned them…the worthiness of his teachers. Now you say, “Who were the teachers?” Look at verse 15, Paul reminds Timothy that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures (3:15). For Timothy, the Holy Scriptures was the Old Testament Genesis to Malachi. Timothy’s mother and grandmother Lois and Eunice were following that Old Testament instruction taught him the OT from a child (BREPHOS, bref-os), which means babe or infancy. From the time of childhood his mother and his grandmother had taught Timothy the truths of God’s Word. It is important to start young. – 2 Tim 1:5

Nearly half (43%) of all Americans who accept Jesus Christ as their savior do so before reaching the age of 13 years of age.

II Trust God’s Word (16a)

1. The Holy Spirit, transported His words into the minds of the biblical writers, and they wrote down God’s words. Psalms 119:160 reiterate this truth.
Thy word [is] true [from] the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments [endureth] for ever.

2. In today’s language this means the Bible is the infallible Word of God. Jesus often appealed to Scripture as His infallible authority by saying, “It is written. “

III God’s Word will Achieves its Purpose (3:16 -17).

1. The Bible is profitable for teaching us, rebuking us, and correcting us. It is also useful for instruction in righteousness (3:16e). This means it tells us how to stay on the right track or stay ready for God to use. As we study the Bible, we learn how to live righteously. God tells us how much He loves us, He rebukes us when we are wrong, tells us how to get right, and how to stay right with Him. God wants to produce mature Christians to do good works, note verse 17.

Conclusion: The Bible not only re¬bukes us when we sin, but also tells us what to do to correct our spiritual condition so that God can use us again. 1 John 1:9