-- 2 Timothy 3:15-17
15 And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus.

+ 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God's Scriptural 'Benefit Package'

This world offers a variety of financial plans, weight loss programs, and a host of other opportunities which all claim to yield beneficial results. But nothing is as profitable to us as Scripture.

God’s plans for you do not stop at salvation. His goal is that you become conformed to the likeness of His Son, and the tool He uses to achieve His purpose is the Bible. Today’s passage outlines His comprehensive program for your spiritual transformation.

The foundation is laid with the teaching of Scripture’s basic truths. These fundamental doctrines about God’s character and work anchor our souls during the storms of life and protect us from deception. Since we all have certain flesh patterns, perfection is impossible, and we at times fall into sin. Then Scripture offers reproof, and we sense conviction about our wrongdoing.

This is followed by correction. The Lord never convicts us and leaves us in the mess we have made. He provides the instruction that we need to make things right.

The final step is training in righteousness. Think of this as a one-on-one discipleship course with the Word of God. If we heed the instruction and discipline of Scripture, we’ll grow in obedience and godliness and eventually will find that we need less reproof and correction.

Full participation in the Lord’s scriptural benefit package involves three steps:
1) Read (Hear) the Bible each day;
2) Believe everything God says in His Word (Heb.4:2; 11:6; Rom.10:17) - not just the parts that appeal to you; and
3) Do what God says (James 1:22).

+ You will become equipped and qualified to fulfill His purpose for you.

-- Charles Stanley

-- Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God.’" (Deut.8:3).

-- Romans 10:17
Consequently, Faith comes from hearing the Message, and the Message is heard through the Word of Christ.

-- Hebrews 11:6
And without Faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must Believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

-- James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.


Those who would learn the things of God, and be assured of them, must know the Holy Scriptures, for they are the Divine revelation. The age of children is the age to learn (Prov.22:6; Deut.4:9); and those who would get true learning, must get it out of the Scriptures. They must not lie by us neglected, seldom or never looked into. (Deut.6:5-9).

The Bible is a sure guide to eternal life. The prophets and apostles did not speak from themselves, but delivered what they received of God, (2.Pe.1:21). It is profitable for all purposes of the Christian life. It is of use to all, for all need to be taught, corrected, and reproved.

There is something in the Scriptures suitable for every case. Oh that we may love our Bibles more, and keep closer to them! then shall we find benefit, and at last gain the happiness therein promised by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the main subject of both Testaments. We best oppose error by promoting a solid knowledge of the word of truth; and the greatest kindness we can do to children, is to make them early to know the Bible. (Proverbs.22:6) - "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

-- Matthew Henry (for 2.Timothy.3:14-17)

-- 1 Peter 1:23
For you have been born again, not of perishable Seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.

-- 2 Peter 1:21
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

-- Deuteronomy 6:5-9
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

(2.Timothy.3:15) - "And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus."

Paul knew of no salvation, except through the Lord Jesus. He says, therefore, that the study of the Scriptures, valuable as they were, would not save the soul unless there was Faith in the Redeemer; and it is implied, also, that the proper effect of a careful study of the Scripture (the Bible), would be to lead one to put his trust in the Messiah. (Barnes)

-- John 1:14,17
14 The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

17 For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

-- John 5:39
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me.

-- John 15:26
When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about Me.

-- Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

-- 1 John 5:11-12
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

-- Romans.10:9-10
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

The Bible: The Holy Scriptures

+ God caused the Bible to be written for the express purpose of revealing to man God's plan for His redemption. Without the Bible, this world would be a dark and frightening place, without signpost or beacon. -- Billy Graham

+++ The Bible not only tests experience, it tests truth. The Bible tests all experience, all truth, all authority by our Lord Himself and our relationship to Him personally. -- Oswald Chambers

+ The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner. -- William Townsend

+ There's no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself. -- D.L. Moody

+ The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight. -- D.L. Moody

+ This Book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the travelers map, the pilgrims staff, the pilots compass, the soldiers sword, and the Christians character. Here paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. CHRIST IS ITS GRAND OBJECT, our good is its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life and will be opened in the judgment and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents. -- Anonymous

---

-- 2 Peter 1:20-21
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

-- Matthew 5:17-18
17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

-- Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

-- John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

-- John 6:33-35,48,51
+ 33 "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34 They said to Him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.
+ 48 I am the bread of life.
+ 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

-- John 7:37-39
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

-- Hebrews 4:12-13
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

-- Isaiah 55:6-11
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. ++ 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields Seed for the sower and bread for the eater, ++ 11 so is My Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

The Holy Scriptures Benefit

+ If you plant for a year, plant grain. If you plant for ten years, plant trees. If you plant for a 100 years, plant men. If you plant for eternity, plant the Word of God. -- Anonymous

+ Don't worry about what you do not understand... Worry about what you do understand in the Bible but do not live by. -- Corrie Ten Boom

+ The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ's image. Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life. -- Howard G. Hendricks

+ Our Christian experience must agree with the Bible. We will be taught by the Bible and fed by the Bible. But we do not believe in Christ because He is in the Bible: we believe in the Bible because Christ is in us. -- Claxton Monro

+ Whatever merit there is in anything I have written is simply due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read me a part of the Bible and daily made me learn a part of it by heart. -- John Ruskin

+ It is better to have an understanding of the general structure of the Bible to get the most out of it. -- Billy Graham

+ If we want the Word of God to have authority in our life, there is only one way - obey it. If we want the Holy Spirit to have authority in our life, there is only one way - Obey Him. If we always obey impulses of fear or doubt or resentment, what will have authority over our minds? Fear, and doubt and resentment. -- Tom Marshall

+ The richness of God's Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart. -- D.Bonhoeffer

+ Either the Bible will keep you away from sin, or sin will keep you away from the Bible! -- Anynomous

+ It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom. -- Horace Greeley

+ Those who are readiest to trust God without other evidence than His Word always receive the greatest number of visible evidences of His love. -- C.C.G.Trumbull

+ The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. -- George Mueller

+ If we are not interested in the Word of God, can we really be interested in God (the Trinity)? -- Robert Godfrey

+ No man is uneducated who knows the Bible, and no one is wise who is ignorant of its teachings. -- S.Chadwick

+ Reading the Bible without meditating on it is like trying to eat without swallowing. -- Anonymous

---

-- John 15:3-8
3 You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in Me and My Words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.

-- Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

-- John 14:21
Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him."

-- Matthew 7:21, 24-25
21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. ++ 24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

-- 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel -- not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

-- Colossians 3:16-17
16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

-- Matthew 13:23
But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the Word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

-- 1 Corinthians 3:6-11
6 I planted the Seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. +++ 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the One already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

-- 1 Thessalonians 2:13
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

-- Jeremiah 15:16
Your Words were found, and I ate them,
And Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name, O LORD God Almighty.

-- Psalms 119:1-2, 9-11, 105
1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart. ++ 9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word. 10 I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your Commands.
11 Your Word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
++ 105 Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light for my path.


-- 2 Peter 3:8-9
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (Ps.90:4) 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

-- 1 Timothy 2:4
He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

-- Revelation 22:18-21
18 I warn everyone who hears the Words of the prophecy of this Book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this Book. 19 And if anyone takes Words away from this Book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.