that represents every aspect of the created realm the Psalmist can say “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; marvels of the Bible is that it is “breathed out” from God Himself and; as such, it teaches us that all things exist for Him and for His glory. As we realize and embrace this fact we sit up and pay careful attention to the Bible is to teach us that He made the entire universe to praise His most glorious name.
As we look at God’s purpose of Creation it is interesting that amongst the vastness of all that God created, He made us as human beings unique and central to His desire for praise. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit con- templated creating mankind God said “Let us make man in our image - ing make in the image of God is that we were created with the ability to intimately know God and truly understand and respond to our calling to bring glory to Him in all things. We were created as the pinnacle of all of creation because we as human beings are most able to exemplify the glory of God. Knowing this purpose of God for us makes the entrance of sin into the world the greatest tragedy to ever occur. The result of sin is that man catastrophically shifts from the cry of “Blessed be God!” to that precede our text are warning of false teachers they serve as a sober reminder of the effects of sin on all mankind. Paul states, - ty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slan- derous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) It is true that Paul wrote these words long ago but he could have easily written them after watching the news, coming back from a day of shop- determined to serve and praise self. It is precisely for this reason that the Word of God is needed for “reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. Left to ourselves we are, as the Psalmist describes most certainly will not! It isn’t the most pleasant aspect of the Bible’s message for us to embrace but thankfully God is gracious enough to tell us what our hearts are truly like. in giving us His word seem to be at cross purposes to each other. Ev- erything about God demands to be worshipped yet, because of sin ev- erything about us refuses to do so. This problem is precisely why the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. In His person and through His work God reconciles to Himself all who come to the Lord Jesus in faith. The revelation of God in Christ Jesus is God’s greatest purpose in giv- ing us the Bible. Without Christ, we are left in the impossible situation of knowing what we were created for but having no desire or ability to do it. In the verse right before those that we are considering Paul
September/October 2022
can tell Timothy to continue in the Bible because its message is “able to make you wise for salvation Timothy 3:14-15). Whether we are speaking about the initial heart change of a sinner in regeneration or whether we are speaking about growing in evangelical obedience, everything centers on the person of Jesus. It is in Christ that our sinful hearts are able to begin to cry out “Blessed be God!” and it is out of Christ Jesus that those same more to live all of life to the praise of God’s glorious grace. It is in this way that we see so clearly that the Gospel is not merely cold propositions but the very person of Jesus Christ Himself.
To advance the Gospel is neces- sarily to advance the knowledge of the Son of God in a sinful and fallen world where human beings are naturally unable and unwill- ing to do that for which they were created. As we read 2 Timothy 3:16,17 we can rejoice that God has given to us in the Bible di- vinely inspired answers to who He is, who we are, and who the Lord Jesus Christ is. God has not only given us the duty to advance the Gospel but has told us very His Word. Praise be to God for the precious gift of His Word!
Rev. Brian Murray is one of the associate pastors at Grace ARP in Woodstock, Ontario Canada and is the principal of both Gillespie Acad- emy and Gillespie Divinity School.
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