2 Timothy 2:14-26 The Word of God

All right, I'm glad to be able to be back with you today. I'm going to make one change, though, because we're going to get that double-time out of Charlotte one way or another. And so, Linda, you need to get ready for just as I am, because we're having the invitation and everything at the end of the day. So... It's a clock picker. It's a clock picker. Oh, no, Eddie's talking about grandkids not wanting to come because they might fall asleep. Listen, I've preached for about 20 years, and so I'm fully aware that people doze off and fall asleep. And I don't take it personally at all, other than the time or two that I had a hard time staying awake myself while I was preaching. Nonetheless, hopefully that won't be the case today. We're going to pick up in 2 Timothy chapter 2, from where we left off last week. We'll pick up at verse 14. We're going to talk today, and Paul's beginning to set the stage for Timothy, what he's going to do in chapter 3, talking about the inspiration of the Word of God. Because what we see is that the Church has, throughout its existence, going all the way back to Acts chapter 2, when there on the day of Pentecost, of course, Peter, filled with the Spirit of God, stands up, begins to preach. The Spirit descends upon the Church, and on that day the Church is born. And we see there where there are thousands who respond to the gospel. And ever since that time, and even previous to that, there were those who have come in opposition to the Word of God, those who have come in opposition to God's people, those who stand in opposition to God. But the birth of the Church in Acts chapter 2, we see that there is immediately opposition that begins to come against the Church. And so much of the New Testament that we see, particularly in the letters of Paul, is the biblical authors writing and addressing some type of heretical or false teaching or something like that. We see it early on in the Corinthians, where Paul is having to address the sinful behavior and the divisions that existed in the Church at Corinth. In the book of Galatians, we see where there's people coming into the Church, and he calls They're trying to say that true faith is being Christian and Jewish. And so not Christianity as being the fulfillment of everything that God was doing through the nation of Israel, but for them to be Christians, they had to first become Jews, and only then could they become Christians. In so doing, they were diminishing the role of grace and diminishing free salvation to all who would believe. And so Paul writes to the Church at Galatia to tell them that if anybody comes and preaches a different gospel than what he had given to them, then they were to be accursed, or they were to be anathema. We see where Peter, in both of his letters, 1 and 2 Peter, addresses the false teachers who are coming into the life of the Church. And so this is something that has always existed in the life of the Church, is those who come in opposition and want to take the true teachings of God, true scripture, and they want to embrace just enough of it to get us to bite, and then they want to reel us into a different direction that takes us away from God. And Paul has dealt with that for the entirety of his ministry since God converted him on the road to Damascus, and so much of what he wrote he was writing because of false teachings. And so he's setting the stage in chapter 2 to get to chapter 3 where he is going to talk about the Word of God as being what we must believe to avoid false teachings. Now, think about the power of communication. We really don't think about it a whole lot, but think about how communication is itself a gift from God. You've all communicated this morning to multiple people. You woke up and in your home you maybe communicated to family members, spouse, whomever it may be. You walk into church and you have conversations with more people than you can probably even remember that you've talked to by this point and still got a little ways to go. The very fact that what we're doing as a church, as a Sunday school class, that we have teachers, that we have preachers, that we have music, all of these things are forms of communication. Because communication is something that we live on, we thrive on, and if we miscommunicate or we misunderstand, we get our feelings hurt, we get upset, we get discouraged. Words have the capacity to give life and words have the capacity to destroy life. Think about how sensitive the heart of a child can be and how careful we've got to be in our communication to children. And we have to be careful in our communication to one another also. An ill-spoken word will harm a relationship for days, weeks, months, maybe a lifetime. Words are critically important because words are important to God. Think about how we were introduced to God in Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. And God said. Have you ever thought about this? Nobody existed before God created. Nothing existed before God created. The only thing that existed was God. And yet God created by Satan. Who is he talking to? Who did he say it to? Well, we know that the Bible teaches us the doctrine of the Trinity and God has always lived in relationship as Father, Son, and Spirit. And then when we get down to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, we read there where God creates us in his image. Part of that, being created in the image of God, is that we desire to have relationships because God is eternally relational as Father, Son, and Spirit. That's a lot to think about early on a cold, rainy morning. But God has always been relational. And for us to be created in God's image is for us to be relational. And what greater way to develop relationships than to find forms of communication. And we've always done that. The spoken word. If we can't speak, then we develop things like sign language. We learn how to read and write in Braille. The frustration of playing charades, trying to communicate without speaking. Because it is something that is inherent to us to want to be able to communicate with one another. It is so important to God that the way that John introduces us to the Son of God is as the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. And then down in verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father. Words and communication are critically important. And Paul is telling Timothy, and God is telling us in 2 Timothy chapter 2, Be careful about how, what, and why you communicate. Our content, what we say, our tone, how we say it, and our intent, our motive. Because we can say good words with bad motives. And the communication corrupts the heart of our hearers. And Paul is telling Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2, Timothy, communication is going to be critical. So pay attention to how you do it. Let's look, verse 14, 2 Timothy chapter 2. Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle or not to debate about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene or like cancer. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place. And they have set the faith of some. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this sealed. The Lord knows who are his. And everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and of earthenware and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness and faith and love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord's bondservants must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been held captive to do his will. And so we see here throughout this text that Paul continues to return Timothy and return us to being aware of how we're communicating what we're communicating and our motives for what we are saying. He says there to remind them of these things the things that we have previously looked at last week and probably most crucially that last little hymn that we discussed when we left off last week when we died with him, we will also live with him. Wanting us to remember that no matter what opposition in this world we may face even if they take our lives we're just going to live with the Lord. If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, if we persevere, we will reign. If we deny him, he will also deny us but if we are faithful, he remains or if we are faithless, rather, he remains faithful. He's telling us to be reminded that in this world, as long as we are walking with God there is no ultimate defeat for he has already killed death on the cross. And in his killing of death, he is one resurrection not only for himself, he's the first fruits but also for us. We will live forever. But there are those who have come into the church here at Ephesus and they've begun to teach other things. They've begun to teach that perhaps like what we read about in 2 Thessalonians where the resurrection has already taken place and we'll see indications of that here later on in this text as well. You know, one of the things that Christians always have to wrestle for is that we maintain true doctrine. We maintain a true view of the word of God. And we see that not only in New Testament times from Paul writing to the church of Corinth and the church of Galatia and the church of Ephesus and all these other churches that are being confronted with false teachings that are beginning to creep their way into the church. But, you know, we look at early Christian history. We think about the Council of Nicaea where there Athanasius and Arius are debating about whether or not Jesus is really the eternal son of God. And then we see that develop on through other creeds and councils and things of that nature that occur. The Creed of Calcidon and we see the Apostles' Creed I believe in God the Father, the almighty maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ as only begotten son. And we see where our early forefathers, the Anabaptists in 1525 began to realize the corruption that had occurred in Christianity because they began to rely upon human philosophy instead of upon the word of God. And so those Anabaptists said, no, for us to be followers of God means that we are men and women who believe in the word of God as the ultimate source of truth. We see that early English Baptists like John Smith and Thomas Helwes with the early American Baptists like Roger Williams who creates the first Baptist church in America at Providence, Rhode Island in 1638. All of these are Christians trying to remain faithful to the word of God. And that's what we see that's going on here. He says, remind them of these things in verse 14 and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle, not to wrestle about words that are useless. And it leads to the ruin of the hearers. Think about how our words can hurt other people. One of my last few years as a pastor, I merged two different churches. I was pastoring a church that had a space problem. We didn't have enough. And there was a church that was less than a mile down the road that had a space problem. They had too much. And so we merged the churches and brought those two churches together into one church and moved from having enough space for a church of about 200 to a church that had enough space for about 1,200 by merging those two churches. And the Lord was so kind the way that he brought the two congregations together. It was really, for the most part, a blessing. This was right at the very beginning of COVID. So that didn't do anything but increase the challenges that we faced. And so we were getting ready to celebrate our two-year anniversary of the merged churches. Those two churches come together. We're going to have a big two-year celebration and just excited about everything that God was doing. So I'd gone into a Sunday school class that morning and was coming out of Sunday school getting ready for the worship service. And after the service, we were going to have a fellowship. And it was going to be a big meal and big celebration and had some things that we were going to do that would create just a wonderful experience of thankfulness for what God had done. And as I'm walking out of Sunday school through the fellowship hall, I realize I walk into a hornet's nest. I don't know what's going on, but the tension was evident. And of course, what I wanted to do was let somebody else deal with it. And I was going to act like I didn't know any better. But I knew I better try to find out what was going on and come to find out two of the people who were in charge of the fellowship had gotten into an argument. Now, it wasn't an argument on the gospel. It wasn't an argument about whether or not Jesus died on the cross for our sin. It wasn't an argument about whether or not the Bible is the word of God. It wasn't an argument about whether or not salvation is by faith. It wasn't an argument about anything near that important. It was an argument about something that was apparently to them significantly more important. And it was whether or not we were going to eat off of paper plates or real dishes for the fellowship. True statement. And so one of them came up to me and she has a handful of kids. They had four or five kids in the church. And she came up to me and said, we're going home. We're not staying. We're leaving. And they went home and told everybody why they were leaving on their way out. And they were leaving because she wanted to use real dishes while the other lady wanted to use paper plates. And so they walked out. And so what was intended to be a wonderful day of celebration about what God had done had really become disheartening to a number of people. And the Lord had brought some new people to us. And it was just, the Lord was still good. And certainly, you know, we were able to recover from all of that. But nonetheless, the point is that the Bible is telling us here let's be aware that there's a lot of things over which we can argue and fuss and fight that just doesn't accomplish anything worthy of being accomplished. And every now and then, you probably don't ever have this, but every now and then, I'll say something I wish I wouldn't have said. And the Lord has given me just a wonderful gift of grace that has blonde hair and blue eyes and is named Sandy, who when I say something I'm not supposed to say, she has a particular look that you all don't know about, but I do. And I don't even have to be looking at her to know when I got it. You'll notice I'm looking over here right now. We can say things that oftentimes create unnecessary divisions and contentions and arguments. And God wants us to be sure that whatever words that we speak, they are words in verse 14 that are not useless, they don't lead to the ruin of the hearers. So he says, Timothy, for you to be able to do this and to do this well in verse 15, you have got to be diligent. The language there is this idea, Timothy, you've got to constantly be aware, be mindful, be conscious that you are presenting yourself to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Most of the words that we say that lead to unnecessary arguments and debates are words that were not necessarily well thought out and intentional. They were words where we lacked discipline in our approach. We weren't thoughtful about to whom we were speaking. We lose a sense of how powerful our words can be. And so Paul says to Timothy here, you need to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. And how can we do that? By accurately handling the word of truth. To accurately handle, it means literally to cut straight. It's when you catch that catfish and you're filleting that catfish and you want to take that fillet knife and you want to cut it as straight across the backbone as you can possibly cut it because you want to get all of the meat out of it without getting any of the bones in it. And so you try to cut it as straight and as careful as you can. And we're told to do that with the word of truth, with the word of God. We are to handle it not with an axe, but with a scalpel. Cutting it straight. Because in the word of God is the capacity for us to speak to people in such a way that builds them up rather than tears them down. It's a reminder to us that the best way that we can encourage one another is simply by speaking godly, God's words to one another. Speaking the truth in love. The Bible calls out a couple here that said in verse 16, we're to avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness. And when that happens, that talk will spread like gangrene or some translations use the word cancer there. But you know what gangrene is, right? Gangrene is that it literally kills the flesh. And so what it does, when we speak words that are unhealthy for other people, it becomes cancerous. It becomes like gangrene. It kills their flesh. When Sandy and I and our two girls, they were five and ten when we moved to Southwestern. And we were visiting around churches right after this in the year 2000. We were visiting around churches in the Fort Worth area. And we went into one particular church and we weren't in there for five minutes and we just felt the oppressiveness. We were kind of discouraged after going there and so we asked some friends that knew the church and they said, yeah, they've been in pretty much of a church battle for a couple of years now. And it had just become so oppressive that it had spread throughout the congregation like gangrene. He says, don't let their empty chatter, don't let their ungodliness spread like gangrene. And he names two of them, which I've always found interesting. He actually names them Hymenaeus and Philetus. He says, these are men who have gone astray from the truth. They're saying that the resurrection has already taken place and they've upset the faith of some. They've gotten discouraged. They've gotten shaken in their faith because they're wondering have they missed the resurrection? Maybe God had forgotten about them and God had left them behind. And it wrecks their faith. You know, we have a tendency to think that the best way for us, or the best use of our words, is for us to try to get people to like us. And some people will end up doing what we say, they speak out of both sides of their mouth and they're glad-handing these people over here and then they'll come over here and glad-hand these people over here and they're speaking out of both sides of their mouth. But what we see here is that they have strayed away from the truth and rather now than speak in truth, they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth, literally, and they are upsetting the faith of some. You know, this type of disruption within the church was probably very upsetting to Timothy who was pastoring the church. And he sees these divisions going on and he sees people that are abusing their words or abusing the faith for their own end and it would upset Timothy. We see Timothy was a young pastor and he's probably questioning, if you read through 1 and 2 Timothy, Timothy seems to be a very timid young man. And Paul is having to encourage him and having to bolster him and having to encourage him. And we all need those people in my life. Right? I've had them in my life. You've had them in your life. We all need them in our lives. Many of them have been pastors that were generations ahead of me. Many of them have been church members. But their encouragement to us, who are you an encourager to? Who are you encouraging? Well, Paul runs to Timothy to encourage him and so Paul gives Timothy this encouragement by telling him to remind him what the Scriptures really say. Just remind him. You know, most of us don't need new truth. We just need to be reminded of the truth that we already know. We have short memories. And we don't need somebody else to always open up the Word of God and teach us something that we didn't already know. We just need to be reminded of what we do know. Things like God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. We need to be reminded of that, not because we don't know it, but because we have a tendency to forget it. Jesus' Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the peacemakers. We just need to be reminded of these things. We don't always need to be taught new things. And so that's why the Bible says next in this text, it says next that in verse 19, the firm foundation of God stands and it has this seal. This is probably from chapter 16, verse 5. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal, two things. The Lord knows who are His and everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. In other words, God knows who you are. The Lord knows who are His. Think about this for just a moment. You may have woken this morning and you watched the news and you saw some politics and you saw some culture and you saw some economics and you saw all kinds of things going on in this world. What are they doing over there in Russia? What's going on over in the Ukraine? What about poverty over here in Africa or wherever it may be? What's going on all across the world? What's going on in our own metropolitan area? And God is in control of all of those things. And yet, even though He can control all of that, He knows each one of us here this morning by name. And that thing that you woke up this morning worrying about, that conversation that you need to have tomorrow that you're feeling stressed about, when you get there, God's going to be waiting for you. He knows who are His. He knows the circumstances of our lives. And if we name Him, we are to depart from or to abstain from wickedness. So, Paul's intent was to remind Timothy that God is sovereign and that He knows what He is doing. There are those who will come against the church. Enemies are sometimes outside of the church and sometimes those enemies are inside the church. Nonetheless, the church is God's firm foundation. God's means of doing what He does is through His Word and through His Spirit, which leads us into this next section in verse 20. Now, in a large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware and some for dishonor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. And so, Paul uses an analogy in this section that is of a household type. He's speaking about various types of vessels. Now, vessels can be anything, right? A vessel can be anything from a bowl to a cup to a utensil, a fork or a spoon or something like that. So, this idea of a vessel means really just any kind of a utensil or any type of a dish that is a part of the house. It can also be what we might refer to as a bedpan. These vessels would be made out of various things. Some are made out of wood. Some are made out of silver in very wealthy homes. Some are made out of gold. Some are clean. Some are unsanitary. The Bible is teaching us that there are people who will embrace false teachings. And in the embracing of false teachings, we become like an unsanitary vessel because we can do damage to the work of God. And it is those people that teach false gospels, that try to harm the church that Timothy is being called to deal with very, very carefully. God says in verse 21, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor and he will be sanctified and useful to the Master. One thing that I've always wanted to be a part of my life, I want to make sure is a part of my life, is that I want to be doing what God wants me to do. I want to be useful for work in His kingdom. I want to be someone who encourages others. I want to be someone who teaches others. I just always want to make sure that I am the best instrument for God that I can possibly be. Not because God needs me, but because I want to find the joy that comes with being used by God. And there is no greater joy that we can have than to know that God has used us for something. And so he says, we are to be sanctified so that we'll be useful to the Master. That is, we are to be purified. We're to be cleansed. We're to be sharpened. And how are we sharpened? I'd say by the Word of God and by the Spirit of God. And as we prayerfully read and hear God's Word, His Spirit works within us, convicting us, comforting us, encouraging us, guiding us, so that we can be useful for the work of the Kingdom of God. It's very similar to what Paul would write in Ephesians 2, verse 10. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Now think about this for just a moment. In Ephesians 2, verse 10, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works and it's those good works that God has prepared beforehand. So God has prepared the works. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, God has prepared the worker. He's already done it all. He's prepared the work. He prepares the worker. We just have to be willing to be used by. God, You've prepared me. You've prepared the work. Now just help me to do it in a way that is honoring unto You. It's the beauty of the Christian life. It's not that we have to wrestle and struggle to be successful. It's that we simply have to be faithful. And God leads the worker that He has prepared to the work that He has prepared. And when those two come together, God does magnificent things. Now look at verses 22-26 with a little bit of time that we have left here. Now, He says, flee from youthful lust and pursue righteousness. Notice that there is a negative here. Flee from and a positive. Pursue. Flee from and flee to. Flee from the youthful lusts. Flee from the things that we desire. And flee toward the things that God desires. Righteousness and faith and love and peace. You see, the Christian life is not merely that we are negative. Don't do that. It's that we are also positive. Do do this. And when the don'ts meet the do's, by godliness, we have the fullness of joy. When I don't do what God doesn't want me to do, and when I do do what God wants me to do, then I have joy. Alright? So, we are to flee and to pursue. Second, we are to avoid foolish and ignorant speculations. In verse 23, refuse foolish and ignorant speculations knowing that they produce quarrels. Now, I don't know how much time I have. So, right. Perfect. Okay. Surrounded by young students filled with vim and vigor that's going out to win the world to Christ. Nobody's figured it out until they got there. And I walk through the coffee shop and they're having fun. But they're debating things and I'm just sitting here going, why are you guys debating things like this? It really doesn't matter. What matters is that we avoid these empty and foolish and ignorant speculations because they don't do anything but produce quarrels. And the Lord's bond servant is not to be quarrelsome. He is to be kind. Kind to all. He is to be able to teach. You say, well, I don't have the gift of teaching. Well, that may not mean that you stand up in front of a group and you teach the Word of God, but it does mean that your words influence other people. And you teach them just by the way you live your life. And so, let's teach them in a way that leads them to more godliness. We're to be patient when wronged. Do you ever wish God would give us a delete? Be patient when wronged. You know? Can we not have a line item veto somewhere in this? No, we're to be patient when we've been done wrong. Patience when we've been done wrong is not weakness. It's strength under control. It's strength under control. Adrian Rogers used to say that meekness doesn't mean weakness. It's the difference between a stallion and a stallion that's been broken. It has the same amount of strength. It's just that we have our strength under control. Being patient when we've been wronged doesn't mean we're weak. It means we have discipline. We have strength that is under control. And then in verse 25, with gentleness, we correct those who are in opposition. It doesn't mean that we let error continue to go and to grow because it becomes like gangrene and it spreads. But we are to correct with gentleness. Because when we do so, it's very possible that the Lord will use our gentleness to lead others to faith. So we correct each other with gentleness when correction needs to occur. Why should we be diligent to do all of this for those who may be considered enemies? Well, because God uses patience and well-doing of His children to melt the hearts of the unbelievers, to bring them to repentance and salvation, escaping the snare of the devil. Well, Paul, how do you know? A persecutor of Christians. When Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 7, he stood there with the robes of the persecutors laying at his feet. And the young Paul, who was then known as Saul, cheered him on as they cast those rocks and stones. But then Saul met the Lord on Damascus Road. God came to a guy by the name of Ananias and said, Go talk to Saul. And Ananias said, Well, God, you may not know this. That guy is kind of hateful toward us. And God said, I wasn't taking a poll. Go to him. And because Ananias was obedient to the Lord, Saul became Paul. And God used Paul tremendously for the work of the gospel. And He does the same with us. Correcting one another. Gentleness, patience, kindness. Handling the word of truth very carefully. Not compromising it. Just not needing to be hateful about it. It was during the second century that great persecution broke out by the Romans against the Christians. As persecution continued to grow more and more against the Christians, God brought more and more people to faith. So much so that one of the early church fathers, a guy by the name of Tertullian, wrote, That the blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the church. The Bible teaches us that we are to be diligent workers. We are to handle the word of God accurately as we stand against false teaching. And we are to treat others with love and respect. And we are to trust God when things are hard. And when we diligently do these things, that God often brings revival to His people and brings the lost to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that through 2 Timothy, the entire chapter leading up to chapter 3, is that we are seeing how God, by His Spirit, through Paul to Timothy and to us, is showing us how to be men and women of God who are building our lives upon His Word. And then, by God's grace, we might just see a great, great revival. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank You that You have not left us to try to figure out all of this stuff on our own. But You have told us exactly what You desire from us. And so help us to be diligent. Ready in season and out of season to give a reason for the hope that is within us. God, if You would use any of us to build up and encourage and influence anybody around us, we will give You all the glory, Father. For each of us are aware of the numbers of people that You have sent to us in our times of need. And we thank You for them. May You be praised above all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.