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The "evil day" of Eph. 6: is upon us. Praise God for the "whole armour of God"
wherein we may stand conscious that we are more than conquerors in Him Who loved us.
#5.
The Weapon (II Tim. 3: 14-17).
pp. 156 - 158
"BUT CONTINUE."--With these words the apostle turns to Timothy as he warns of
the evil days to come. The deceivers will "make progress" even as their "profane and
vain babblings" will "make progress unto more ungodliness" (2: 16). Now just as 2: 16
is in sharp contrast with the command rightly to divide the word of truth (2: 15), so
3: 13 is in sharp contrast with the rightly divided word itself (3: 14). Timothy is to:--
"Continue in the things which he had learned and had been assured of, knowing
FROM WHOM he had learned them, and that from a child he had known the Holy
Scriptures" (3: 14, 15).
The one weapon in the complete armour of God is "the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God" (Eph. 6: 17). "It is written" overthrew the tempter in the wilderness.
The "word of their testimony" ranked next to the "blood of the Lamb" as the overcoming
power of the conquerors in Rev. 12: While the world makes its so-called "progress", the
believer stand fast to the Word. Such an attitude is unscientific, it is behind the times, it
does not fit in with the ever-broadening tendency. As the "image" nears its final phase,
"but continue" is our watchword. That in which the believer is to continue is twofold.
THE SCRIPTURESS.--The apostle links his own special teaching which Timothy
had learned with the Scriptures. In chapter 4: Timothy is charged to preach the word.
This word is in 3: 15, 16 called the holy scriptures. The word "scripture" in 3: 16 is
graphē, meaning that which is written. The words "given by inspiration of God"
represent the one word Theopneustos = "God-breathed". This is the temper of the steel of
our one weapon; it is without alloy. Divine inspiration is predicated not of some
scriptures, but of ALL. Moses was an historical person; Sinai was a fact; Adam and Eve
dwelt in a literal garden eastward in Eden; Noah actually lived and built an ark on dry
land; Abraham literally was the father of Israel. If the last piece of the Christian armoury
be the sword of the Spirit, the first piece is the girdle of truth.
A further item of importance concerning Scripture is that there is no interval for
human interference between the Divine utterance and the human record. "All (written)
Scripture is God-breathed." It is not that Isaiah, after a vision, pondered its meaning,
worked himself up to a pitch of excitement and translated the disorders of his time into a
far-fetched dream of Messianic deliverance. The written record that "He was despised
and rejected of men" is that which God said. Acts 1: 16 is a valuable example of the
truth of II Tim. 3: 16, "This Scripture.......which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of
David spake". The mouth was David's, the words were God's. Then observe the range
of these same Scriptures. They are able to make wise unto salvation. They are profitable