Confirmation:  The Lord Is Thy Keeper    2 Timothy 3:14-16

14] But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
[15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto 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:

Where do we go from here?  Nowhere that we haven’t been before.  Confirmation doesn’t end anything.  Somehow, in the last century, the opinion grew that confirmands were young men and women so well instructed that, after confirmation, they could go home, put the Bible on the shelf, and never have to learn Bible passages again.  Now they could feel free to pick and choose when they would go to church, and to go to communion only often enough to retain their membership, until they finally fell away.  When it comes to going to heaven, they could always show God their confirmation certificate.  Many parents didn’t help matters by feeling that, once their children had been confirmed, their duty was done and that they no longer had to bring their children to church.  Imagine the kind of faith it would take for a child to wake his or her parents on a Sunday morning and insist they could not miss hearing God’s word; or for a child to ask, “Why don’t we have family devotions anymore?”  If this sounds absurd, we need to realize that many children are lost to the church immediately after confirmation.

Confirmation is neither a beginning nor an end.  It is a process.  If we want our children to survive in a world that is destroying itself with moral filth and self-indulgence, a world torn apart with war and hate, and liberal churches having “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” 2 Timothy 3:5, then we need to teach our children that their only chance of survival is the word of God.  “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them,” writes the apostle.  What have they learned?  They’ve learned something that the world can’t tell them, namely, that they are natural born sinners who need the comfort and assurance of forgiveness that only the Bible can give.  They’ve learned to turn off the TV long enough every day to read the Scripture as a family, to pray and sing together, and they have learned that from their parents.  St. Paul writes, “knowing of whom you have learned” these things.  Sometimes I am asked, “When is my child ready for instructions?”  My answer is, “When you are ready to send him or her, when they’ve learned, from your example, the importance of going to church, of prayer, and of asking the blessings of the Lord on their daily lives.”  This learning starts long before we begin instruction class.  It begins from the cradle, as the text says, “from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Then why confirm?  I don’t know the answer to that.  I do know the answer, however, to, “Why instruct!”  You as a congregation have called me to help you teach your young people to grow up in a wicked and adulterous world.  We want to help them search the Scriptures for the answers to the problems of their lives.  We them to realize that they, without the Word of God, will never make it on their own.  This is the point that St. Paul makes to Timothy and to us and to our children, namely, that we can never get enough of God’s word.  “Continue thou in the things which you have learned,” he writes.  If our children have learned that, they have leaned it all.  Christian life is a constant battle against the devil, who tries to mislead us with every step we take.  If we think we are sexually pure and strong, we are an easy target for our sinful lust and passions.  If we think our hearts are always filled with love and compassion, we are any easy target for hate, greed, and anger.  If we think that we are so spiritually strong that we can commit our every step to the Savior, we are an easy target for moments of depression and worry.  Only when we recognize that we are naturally sinful and weak creatures, will we welcome the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus Christ.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 John 1:9. 

The apostle concludes his message to us this morning by telling us all the wonderful things the Scriptures do for us.  Our text points out that Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  When you read the Bible, you are hearing God talk.  Not all the combined wisdom of the world will bring you one step closer to heaven.  Only the Scriptures, “given by inspiration of God,” are able to do that and they do it in many ways.  It teaches us what is “profitable for doctrine.”  You can look at the wonders of the sky, and the seas and the flowers and know that there is a creator.  However, you can never know the Creator without first opening this book.  That’s doctrine: the doctrine of a six-day creation over against the nonsense of evolution.  One could write a whole series of sermons on the soul-saving doctrines with which the Bible enlightens our hearts.

The Scriptures are profitable “for reproof.”  Reading the Bible isn’t always pleasant.  One reason young people fall away is that they don’t like to be told by God that they are wrong.  They expect divine approval of their sinful behavior.  For example, many young people resent the Bible telling them that family is more important than career, telling them that couples living together outside of marriage is a violation of God’s divine institution.  Until the Bible points out the areas of weakness in our lives, we will never fall on our knees in repentance and look to the word of God “for correction.”

  .

            The principles and practices that the Bible warns against never give the joy and freedom they offer, but instead make us slaves to our sinful lusts and desires; instead of peace in the family, we shout and complain.  Only the Bible can deliver us from ourselves and lead us on the right path.  Only the Bible can offer true comfort in the midst of bad times,”But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19   Only the Bible can assure us that our Savior will save us from every evil, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”  Psalm 138:7.

            I would like to close our devotion this morning with one of the most comforting and strengthening Psalms in our Bibles,

Psalm 121:

1] I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
[2] My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
[3] He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
[4] Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
[5] The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
[6] The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
[7] The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
[8] The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.