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The Quick and the Dead, 2 Timothy 4:1-5

I’ve titled today’s message the quick and the dead. That phrase is found in vs 1 of our text in the KJV. That title does not really describe the major content of my message, but I thought it sounded cool, so I decided to make it my title. If it sounds like the title to a western movie, it’s because it actually is. It was used for at least two movies by that name. One was what is called a revisionist western, which had cast some sultry actress as the gunslinger. I never bothered to watch that. As someone who grew up watching westerns, I felt that it was something like sacrilege to have that actress play a gunslinger in a western. The other movie called The Quick and the Dead was based on a Louis L’amour novel, and he did have a realistic knowledge of how it was in the Old West. And they had Sam Elliot play the lead in that. He at least looked and sounded like a cowboy.

Of course, in a western movie you would think that the word “quick” was a reference to how fast they could draw a pistol. But the origin of the phrase “the quick and the dead” is actually from the King James Version of the Bible and as I said it is found in our text today, in vs 1. Modern versions interpret it as the living and the dead. And that is more accurate. That phrase is used several times in scripture, and also in the Apostle’s Creed.

But that phrase, while it makes for a cool title, is really only a side note of this final message of Paul to Timothy. The context of this message really starts in chapter 3 vs 1, where Paul says, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” I said previously that the last days speaks of the church age, which started with the first appearing of Jesus Christ and continues until His second appearing. And during this age, Paul said, there will be perilous seasons, actually becoming more perilous and more frequent as the age comes to a close. We are living in the last age, and I believe the church is in yet another perilous season.

Paul says that the danger to the church was there would be seasons where apostasy would run rampant in the church, when false teachers would prevail in the pulpits of churches, when people would be duped by a form of religion but without the power of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts from being dead in their trespasses to being made alive in Christ.

Now last Sunday as we studied the last half of chapter 3, I said that Paul gave Timothy and by extension, gives us, a strategy for surviving these perilous seasons. The first part of that strategy for surviving the perilous times which we covered last time, was the need for discipleship. Being a disciple means abiding in sound doctrine. Following the teaching and principles of the word of God as given by the apostles. Paul says in chapter three vs 10, “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, [and] sufferings.” So being a disciple is to pattern your life after the example of Christ and the apostles.

And another aspect of discipleship that we talked about last week is the need to abide in the word of God. Avoiding the perilous times, the traps of the enemy, will be accomplished by continuing your walk according to the word of God, which is able to train you for righteousness and equip you for every good work. Today we come to the next part of the strategy for surviving perilous times, and that requires submitting to the preaching of the word of God. And we find that laid out for us in chapter 4, starting in vs one. We must remember that the chapter breaks are a man made effort to categorize the scriptures so that we might refer more easily to them. But when Paul wrote this letter, he did not make a break in his argument. There were no chapter breaks in the original text. So he continues his argument in chapter 4.

That being said though, we do see a heavy emphasis given here to the necessity of preaching in chapter 4. Paul gives a very solemn charge to Timothy to preach the word. Starting in vs 1 he says, “I solemnly charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

Paul gives Timothy a solemn charge to preach the word. I just don’t know how to say it any better. I guess the closest example is that it’s like a command from a superior officer, an order to do something that has serious, life or death consequences. An officer in the army who gives a solemn order to a soldier to perform a most serious mission, even a very dangerous mission, which has serious consequences.

Notice he gives this order in the presence of God and Christ Jesus. The Father and Son are ultimately the authority for the command to Timothy. He will be acting on their orders, on their behalf. You know it’s a serious responsibility to preach the word of God. We should not approach this responsibility with a cavalier attitude. James said, “let not many of you become teachers brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.” It’s a serious responsibility to preach the word of God, and it has serious consequences. It is a matter of life and death.

And Paul adds that aspect of life and death by saying, ““I solemnly charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead.” As I mentioned earlier, in the KJV it reads “the quick and the dead.” I like that better. But I think it needs to be explained. Most commentators think that this phrase refers to those who are still living when the Lord comes back, and those that have died before His second coming. Thus the living and the dead or the quick and the dead.

But I don’t interpret it that way at all. I think it refers to those who are spiritually alive and those that are spiritually dead. We are all to be judged. Paul indicates that Timothy will be judged by Christ regarding how well he carried out his mission to preach the word. I will be judged by that same standard. 2Cor. 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Everyone will be judged by what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” All those that are spiritually alive and all those that are dead in their trespasses and sins will be judged when the Lord comes back. Everyone will face the judgment.

It is by His appearing and His Kingdom that the King will judge the earth and all the inhabitants of the earth, both those who are of His kingdom and those who have rejected His kingdom. The first time Jesus came to earth He came to establish HIs kingdom and offer salvation to those that would believe in Him and confess Him as their Lord. The second time He comes to consummate His kingdom and judge the people of the world. And those that He finds have been good stewards will be rewarded, but those who denied Him will be cast out into outer darkness.

Jesus said in Matt. 25:31-33 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”

That judgement which will come upon the whole world is the reason that the charge Timothy is given is such a solemn, weighty command. Because the preaching of the word is the primary means by which God has established that people will be given the wisdom that leads to salvation and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. It is by the foolishness of preaching that men are saved, and by which those that are saved are trained in righteousness. 1Cor. 1:21 says, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not [come to] know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.”

To preach, by the way, means to be a herald of the message that God has given to men. It’s the proclamation of the gospel, the good news of salvation. It is the exercise of what it means to be an ambassador.

And very important to note, Paul commands Timothy to preach the word. Not Timothy’s word. Not preach some form of spiritualism. Not human psychology. Not the social gospel. Not the prosperity gospel. Not how to have your best life now. Not how to win friends and influence people. Not what you think is a more current, relevant, socially acceptable, politically correct version of the gospel. And not preach something that is designed to make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy and loved and special and not hurt anyone’s feelings. But preach the word of God, the truth of God, the truth about sin, about hell, about the cross, about sacrifice, about atonement, about reconciliation, about justification, about sanctification, about glorification. Preach all of the word, every word of God given to us in scripture.

As we learned last week in chapter 3 vs 16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Now in our text today Paul goes on to say that truly preaching the word of God will have four essential components. First, to “be ready in season and out of season.” This idea behind the phrase translated “be ready” to preach isn’t really communicated very well by our translation. Some versions say be instant, others be urgent, others be prepared. The original Greek translation is primarily used for the idea “to come, or to stand, or to appear.” So it’s a little hard to determine what it means exactly. But I think the idea is that he was to be consistent, on point, at all times. Not hot or cold. Not fervent in preaching in good times and in perilous times lax in preaching. But having an urgency that each opportunity to preach was of vital importance.

I have always personally applied that verse to my ministry, especially the in season and out of season part. It’s difficult to have seasons such as we have in our church. But remember, Paul was waring Timothy of the perilous seasons which were to come. Paul says be ready, be earnest, be prepared, be urgent in your preaching, both in the perilous seasons and in the more acceptable seasons.

The second essential component of preaching the word is to reprove. Another possible translation might be to convict. Sin must be preached against so that the sinner repents. To not preach about sin is to take away the whole purpose of the cross, to nullify Jesus’ atonement.

Thirdly, preaching must include rebuke. In the process of reproving, there must be a reprimand. Actually, I think there is very little difference between reprove and rebuke. I suppose you might say one emphasizes conviction, and the other emphasizes correction. This is what you have done wrong, this is how you correct it.

And fourthly, preaching must include exhortation. Exhortation is to encourage. Not just showing sympathy, but motivating the person to make a change, to take action, to get up, to continue, to persevere. Urging. That’s really the difference between preaching and teaching. Preaching is exhortation. Emphatically urging. I guess that’s why preachers tend to yell. Or at least, that’s my excuse.

Then as a modifier to all the above elements of preaching, Paul adds, preach with great patience and instruction. The preacher must be patient with the one hearing the message. Not patient as in “well, when you get around to it, eventually, you should do this.” But the pastor should persevere, be deliberate, willing to put in the time, to wait for the Lord to give the increase to the seed which he plants. Instruction means teaching. So preaching includes teaching. And his teaching should be characterized by great perseverance or endurance, which is perhaps the best idea behind patience.

Then in vs 3, Paul gives a reason why Timothy must be so diligent in preaching the word. Because he says, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

The perilous season will be a time when men will not listen to sound doctrine. Men will not tolerate the truth, or say that there is not absolute truth, and so give ear to false doctrines and myths.

The different translations translate the phrase differently, “wanting to have their ears tickled.” Some say “having itching ears.” Itching ears means you want to hear something that scratches that itch. You want to hear something that suits your own desires. You know it’s a strange irony in Christianity that a lot of people have an interest in church, or an interest in religious things, they seek out Bible studies, they hop from one church after another, trying to find one that tells them what they want to hear. It’s like Paul said of certain idle women in the church in the last chapter, “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Sometimes it’s taken me awhile to recognize a person who seems to have an interest in the Bible, in being taught the things of God, and I suppose that because they have been going to Bible studies or to other churches that it’s evidence of their sincere faith. But it sometimes becomes evident later on that they really had no saving knowledge of the truth at all, but were merely searching for someone to scratch their itch, to validate their false belief. So pursuing religious activities, or going to church is not a true measure of one’s desire to know the truth. Paul says they don’t want to know the truth, they want to hear something to validate their false doctrine.

And so he says they accumulate to themselves these false teachers, these teachers that over emphasize some doctrines, yet overlook other aspects of scripture. They are attracted to teachers who add human psychology and mysticism and spiritualism and all kinds of other isms to their message. The bottom line is that people in these perilous times turn away from the truth, the pure milk of the word, and turn to false doctrines. And that’s what is so perilous about these difficult seasons in the church age, it causes men to believe a lie, and as such remain dead in their sin.

Paul concludes this solemn charge to Timothy by saying in vs5 “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” Paul is making a sharp contrast between the false teachers that people accumulate and congregate around and listen to, and Timothy’s ministry. I think he is indicating that Timothy must recognize that he is to take the less popular path. The false teachers are very popular. They have no problem gathering a crowd with their people pleasing doctrines. The truth is much less popular. Timothy must accept that, and endure the hardship that comes from preaching the truth, to not being popular.

You know, the prophets in the Old Testament were rarely popular. Not even Moses was popular while he was living. The people usually were antagonistic towards God’s prophets. But the false prophets are popular. Don’t judge a preachers’ message by the size of his congregation. At least not by the standard that bigger is better. That’s not how God measures, or how God will judge his ministry. God will judge a preacher by how faithful he was to God’s word.

Paul encourages Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. An evangelist is someone who preaches the gospel. It could be used as a title as well. It was used as a title for some early preachers like Philip. But notice Paul is not saying Timothy is to be an evangelist, but to do the work of an evangelist. That simply means to be a gospel bringer. To bring the gospel. To bring it, in season and out of season, in good times, and in hard times. Bring it. Don’t back down, don’t hesitate, don’t grow tired and discouraged and want to take a break for a while. Stir up the fire in you and bring the gospel to a world that is dying. Bring the gospel to the quick and the dead. That’s the mission, that’s the command. Fulfill your ministry.

What is your ministry, or better yet, what is your part in the ministry? Paul said in Eph 4:11-16 “And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, (that’s you, that’s your ministry – the work of service) to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love,(that is the work of an evangelist; speaking the truth of the gospel in love for those that are dying) we are to grow up in all [aspects] into Him who is the head, [even] Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, (that speaks of each of you doing your part in proclaiming the good news) causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

So you have been commissioned to bring the gospel as well. To do the work of an evangelist. To build up the body of Christ, that is to build up the church, to add to the church, to make disciples. That is every Christian’s commission. That’s your solemn charge. It’s a matter of life and death. I pray that you will heed the call, and fulfill your ministry, that you may be found a faithful servant when the Lord comes again to judge the quick and the dead.

Surviving Perilous Times, 2 Timothy 3:10-17

Last week we studied a rather grim message that Paul gave Timothy regarding the last days. And as a reminder, the last days is a phrase that refers to the time period between Christ’s first appearing and His second coming. It is sometimes called the church age, which is the age Timothy was living in, and which we are living in. Obviously, we are living in the latter days of the last days, but we don’t know how much longer there is until Christ comes back.

But I say it was a grim message because Paul said there would be perilous seasons which would come in this church age. I suggested it was kind of like hurricane season which comes every year, which sometimes can be extremely damaging and dangerous. And Paul explains that the danger to the church was there would be seasons where apostasy would run rampant in the church, when false teachers would prevail in the pulpits of churches, when people would be duped by a form of religion but without the power of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts from being dead in their trespasses to being made alive in Christ.

These perilous seasons would be dangerous because there would be a powerful spirt of deception upon the church which would take people captive to damning theology. Instead of the gospel freeing them from the hold of sin, this false gospel would actually give them a false sense of security, deceiving them by means of false signs and wonders. Paul gave an example of the sort of deception that would be fostered on the church by the example of Jannes and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians that were able to duplicate a lot of the miracles that Moses did, and their deception resulted in the damnation of the Egyptians. Paul says similar deceptions of signs and wonders would be characteristic of the perilous times in the church.

He goes on to say in the passage we are looking at today, which is a continuation of his warning to Timothy, in vs 13 that “… evil men and impostors will proceed [from bad] to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” As the church age progresses, so will the intensity of these perilous times. Evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse. That means the deceptions will go from bad, which it was in Paul’s day, to worse, which I think it is in our day. An imposter is someone who pretends to be someone else. The Bible says that the devil is an expert imposter, masquerading as an angel of light, when he is actually the prince of darkness. And he is the puppet master behind the false teachers that will proliferate as the church age comes to it’s consummation.

Now if Paul stopped there, then it would be a grim message indeed. But Paul gives a counter strategy to the church so that they might survive the perilous times. Not only will the true church survive, but they can even thrive in perilous times. You know, the reality is that the church thrives in times of persecution. When the church declines it is usually in a time of peace and prosperity. But when persecution arises, the church gets stronger. Tertullian, one of the early church fathers living around 200 AD is credited to have said, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” It is when the world is antagonistic towards the church that the battle lines are more clearly drawn, and the truth stands out more clearly than the deception, but when the world and the church lie down in the same bed then it produces adultery with the world and the apostasy that brings destruction.

But in this last section and continuing in the first part of the next chapter, Paul gives us a strategy for surviving the perilous times which come upon the church, and not just surviving, but thriving. But for the sake of brevity, I am not going to really expound much more than this chapter, and wait on the part found in chapter 4, which we will address next week, God willing.

The first principle of the strategy for surviving perilous times might be summarized by the idea of discipleship. The concept of becoming a disciple is something that seems to have fallen by the wayside in modern evangelicalism. But back in the beginning of the church, before even they were called by the name “Christians”, the concept that Jesus taught was to become His disciple. What does it mean to become a disciple? It means to be a follower of Christ, one who receives and believes the teaching of Christ, who patterns himself after the behavior and actions of Christ. And by extension, it meant after Christ’s death and resurrection that one would follow an apostle, follow their teaching, their pattern of life.

And so we find that principle of being a disciple given here by Paul as part of his strategy for surviving the perilous times. He says in vs 10 “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, [and] sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium [and] at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!”

The significance of what he says is you followed me. Timothy was a disciple of Paul. Timothy literally followed Paul in his missionary journeys as he planted churches in the Gentile regions. In the great commission in Matthew 28:19, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” The mandate is to make disciples, followers of the apostle’s doctrine, followers of the apostle’s teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance persecutions and sufferings.

The life of discipleship is much more than simply profession of faith and then continuing to live as you always have lived but with the exception of an hour or so a week spent in church. Being a disciple is a new life, one that is characterized by service to the Lord, by obedience to the word, by a sacrificial love for others, and love for God. It’s a life that perseveres when it seems that there is not always evidence to support our faith. It’s a life that endures suffering for the sake of Christ, that endures persecution for the sake of the gospel.

It’s interesting to notice that Paul says Timothy followed his purpose. What was the purpose of the apostle? It was to carry the gospel to the Gentiles, to the people who had not heard the truth. Paul’s purpose was to share the gospel, to win souls for the kingdom of heaven. That’s the reason God left him on the earth after his conversion. And that’s the reason we are left on the earth. Our purpose, our mission is to go make disciples of all the nations. Make disciples of our loved ones, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our community. That’s the purpose that God has for us that are saved.

It’s also important to notice that Timothy followed the apostles teaching. Teaching is doctrine. And the doctrine taught by the apostles is the doctrine which the church is to hold fast to, to listen to, and to obey. Paul refers to it as sound doctrine in his previous letter to Timothy. He says in 1Tim. 4:6 “In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, [constantly] nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.” Part of discipleship is following sound doctrine. There is a lot of deviant, deceitful doctrine that is being taught in the church today, which is a hallmark of the perilous times of the last days. We need to be like the Berean’s, who studied the word daily to see if the things being taught to them by Paul was correct. Sound doctrine has it’s basis in the words of scripture. And we need to ask the Lord for discernment so that we can check the doctrine coming from our pulpits with the scripture, so that we may know the truth. But being under the teaching of sound doctrine is a vital part of discipleship. You cannot be a disciple and not be under the preaching of sound doctrine.

So being a disciple is a complete life of devotion to the Lord. It’s living a life that is conformed to sound doctrine, that exhibits godly conduct, that fulfills the purpose which we have been given, that perseveres in faith, that has patience and love for others, and which does not waver in persecution and suffering. It’s not just a matter of making a profession of faith and then coming to church once in a blue moon. But it’s a life that is patterned after Christ and the apostles. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus is discipleship. When you are walking in the footsteps of Jesus in your day to day life, then you will be preserved from the perilous times which are coming upon the church in the last days.

The apostle Peter said in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” That’s our purpose, to follow in the steps of Christ, doing what He did, living as He lived, even to the point of suffering as He suffered for the sake of the gospel. You might not be called upon to suffer on a cross, but you are told to take up your cross and follow Christ. That means dying to self, dying to self gratification, and living for the Lord.

Paul says that suffering is a part of discipleship, in vs. 12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” That’s a sobering statement. All who follow Christ, all who desire to live godly lives, will be persecuted. Not maybe will be, but will be. Persecution may not always be physical, but it will come in attacks from the enemy, ridicule from the world, difficulty in the work environment and antagonism from your own family. I will tell you something that wasn’t true 50 years ago. And that is that there are very few occupations that you can be involved in today in this culture that are not in some way or another hostile to Christianity. You’re probably going to have to make a decision in your job in some way, some day soon, where you will be forced to cave into the demands of the culture, or stand up for your convictions and your faith and bear the consequences of possibly being censured, or forced to take sensitivity training, or even fired for your faith. But that day is already here for many careers and occupations. The same is true for colleges and universities. They are hostile to Christianity. If you are a Christian in a secular college today you will either have to cave in to the pressure, or risk being ostracized and perhaps cancelled because of your faith. I hope that when that day comes, you will not waver in your faith.

So discipleship is the first way to survive in perilous times. The second principle is to walk in the truth. Paul speaks of walking in the truth as continuing. To be a disciple, to be follower, means to continue to follow, to continue to walk in the truth. He says in vs 14 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned [them,] and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

This continuing in the apostle’s doctrine is the emphasis that Paul is making as a strategy for survival. The life of the disciple is not start and stop, take a break for a while. The life of a disciple is continuing to follow, continuing to fellowship, continuing to learn. The preaching of the word is one of the primary ways in which we learn the truth, and then we continue to apply ourselves to that truth. Timothy knew that apostle intimately. He knew that he could trust his word, trust his message as the truth of God. It was the same truth that his mother Lois and grandmother Eunice had taught him.

You know the truth of God is self validating. As you learn the truth, and apply the truth, it becomes more and more evident that it is the truth. When you first come to Christ and you are converted, the Bible is something which you have to believe by faith. There isn’t a lot of support from the world that the Bible is God’s word, that it is truth. But as you believe it by faith, and start to apply it to your life, the truth is manifested as being true in your life. That’s why Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The truth of God’s word is believed by faith, but it is validated in application.

I believe that if you are going to be a disciple, then you are going to want to be in a Bible preaching church every time the door is open. You cannot walk in the truth, you will not continue in the truth, if you forsake the assembling of yourselves together. The word of God is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. And when you start skipping church, skipping Bible study, you’re going to find that you are going to be wandering and straying from the path of following Jesus. Your attendance to church is a like a spiritual thermometer that everyone can see. When you are absent more than present, its evident that your love for God has grown cold. When you are eager to hear the word, then its evident that your faith is hot.

Another important principle to notice here in this passage is one that parents should take note of. And that is Timothy was taught the Bible from childhood. The word Paul uses which is translated childhood literally means infancy. The sacred writings is a reference to the Old Testament. That was all that they had available at that time, for the most part. But his mother and grandmother instilled the scriptures into him from infancy, and throughout his childhood. The best insurance you have as a parent that your kids will turn out all right is to raise them in the church, and teach them the scriptures from a very young age.

I find it ironic that Christian parents seem to leave Christian education up to their child to decide if they want to participate. They don’t leave it up to the child to see if he wants to go to school, or to decide what he wants to eat, or whether or not to wash up and brush his teeth. But yet they leave the most important aspect of life, a person’s spiritual health, up to the child to decide if they want to come to church or not. No, start their education as an infant and continue with it until they reach the age where they no longer are under your roof.

Notice Paul said the scriptures were able to give Timothy the wisdom that lead to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Faith is founded upon truth, it’s founded upon the scripture, it’s founded upon the promises of God. Faith is not a feeling, it’s not conjuring up some emotion, faith is not imagining something really hard and trying to visualize it. Faith is believing what there may not seem to be any evidence for, but which you are convinced is true. And the word teaches that salvation is from the Lord Jesus Christ who died in your place, to take away your sins, and give you new life through Him.

So the other aspect of continuing in the truth is to walk according to the word of God. Paul gives a tremendous statement about the authorship and authority and sufficiency of the scriptures that everyone should take the time to study and even memorize as the definitive statement about the scripture.

He says in vs 16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” There are so many vital principles that are contained in this verse. But first of all notice that he establishes the authority of scripture. All scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, even though it was not all written at this time in history, all scripture, is inspired by God.

What does inspired mean? Literally, the word mean’s “God breathed.” That refers to the divine breath, the Spirit of God. The human authors were guided and directed by the Holy Spirit. I’m not going to try to take the time today to give an apologetic about the scriptures which we have in our Bibles. That is a study that would take far more time than what we have today. But I will emphasize what I said earlier, that the truth is self validating. God’s word attests to it’s own authenticity.

God used human authors to write the words that God breathed into their minds. The individuality of the human author is not override, but instead incorporates their own personality, their education, their style and language. Peter spoke of inspiration this way in 2 Peter 1:21 “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” God spoke through men by the Holy Spirit. That’s inspiration.

So all scripture is authored by the Holy Spirit, and it is authoritative because it is the word of God. God spoke as men were moved by the Holy Spirit. It’s God’s word, thus it is truth, it is reliable, it is authoritative. Jesus said in Matt. 4:4, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

And all scripture is profitable. It is profitable to the disciple who submits to it’s teaching. The Bible is instructions from heaven to earth. It’s God’s instructions and principles which are given to man so that he might know how to live and how to live more abundantly. Timothy was able by the wisdom of the word to gain the knowledge of salvation. And so are we. The scriptures are God’s will for mankind revealed. It is the truth of God revealed to us so that we might walk in the light of God.

Paul says the scriptures are profitable for reproof. I said the other night when we were studying the Psalms, that though David asked that God would not rebuke him, he undoubtedly needed to be rebuked. The word of God rebukes us when we need to be rebuked. It corrects us, corrects our thinking, aligns our minds with God’s minds, our attitudes with God’s attitudes, our desires with God’s desires. To be reproofed is to be turned back from a false way.

And the word of God is profitable for training in righteousness. Training is an integral part of discipleship. That’s why we walk in the steps of Jesus, so that we might be trained how to walk. And in the same way, the word of God teaches us how to walk, how to we are to conduct ourselves, how to be godly, how to be righteous. When we read and study the word, it trains our minds which then trains our bodies. Psalm 119 says, “your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

Finally, the word of God is sufficient. Do you want to be a disciple? Do you want to follow the example of Christ and the apostles? The word of God is able to supply all that you need to know in order to be a disciple. Paul says the word is sufficient so that the man of God is adequate, and equipped for every good work. All the things we have been purposed to do, we are able to do as we walk according to the word of God. It’s able to strengthen our faith. It’s able to give us sufficient knowledge that we can share the gospel. It’s able to equip us with the tools we need to fight the good fight of faith in the midst of persecution and sufferings. It’s sufficient for everything that we need. It’s like a manual for discipleship which covers every thing that we need. It’s sufficient to help us survive in the perilous times that come upon the church, when false teachers prevail and the world ridicules and the enemy attacks.

When we read the gospels we see that Jesus Himself relied upon the scriptures, even quoting the scripture repeatedly to combat Satan’s attempts to tempt Him in the wilderness. The word of God was sufficient for Jesus, and it will be sufficient for us as we go through the perilous times of the last days which lie ahead. Paul gives us the certain hope that if we are disciples who continue in the sound doctrine and practice of our faith as exemplified by the apostles, as we walk according to the word of God, we will not be overcome by the world, or by the perilous times ahead, but that we will prevail by the power of the Spirit and the word of God.

Listen, the strategy for avoiding the pitfalls of the perilous times ahead is to draw near to God and He will draw near to you. As we stay close to the Lord and follow Him, stay in the word and submit to it’s teaching, then you will be preserved from the deception and destruction that comes in the last days.

Perilous times, 2 Timothy 3:1-9

As a surfer, I look forward to hurricane season with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. Hurricane season can bring epic waves to the East Coast, which are for the most part much better than the normal summer fare. But at the same time, those hurricanes are best enjoyed when they are hundreds of miles offshore. When they get close to land, or make landfall, they can be extremely dangerous. We are now in hurricane season, and the waves we have this morning are the result of Hurricane Earl which is churning away somewhere off the coast of Greenland this morning, after having moved up the US east coast over the last few days.

From a boating perspective, hurricane season is a perilous season. These powerful storms pose a serious threat to shipping and fishing vessels at sea. The apostle Paul was no stranger to severe storms while at sea. He said in 2 Cor. 11:25 that he was shipwrecked three times. One of those events we read about in Acts 27, where he and his shipmates were in the midst of a severe storm for 14 days and eventually had to abandon ship and swim ashore on an island. So Paul was very familiar with the season in which the storms were known to be severe on the sea. So here in 2 Timothy 3, it’s very interesting to note that Paul uses this expression of a perilous season in his letter to Timothy to describe what he calls the last days.

Notice vs 1, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” That reads in the NASB a little more tame than how it was originally written. More literally, he means “perilous seasons.” It’s not the word “chronos” which indicates time, but “kairos” which indicates a season, a period of time. So during the last days, there will be periods or seasons which are particularly perilous, or even extremely perilous.

But the real difficulty in this verse is the phrase “in the last days.” Many people suppose that is a reference to the time directly before the second coming of Christ. But if you study the scriptures to see how this phrase is used in other places, it becomes clear that it cannot mean that. If that were so, it would be pointless for Paul to tell Timothy to avoid these people who characterized the perilous season of the last days, when the second coming has not yet come some 2000 years later.

There are many other references in scripture where this phrase is used, but the most significant one might be found in Acts 2:17, when Peter quotes from Joel 2:28, where God says, “‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS, THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND.” Peter goes on to say that this prophecy was being fulfilled in that day, on the day of Pentecost. The best understanding then of the phrase the last days is to say that it is a time period that began at Christ’s first coming, and continues until His second coming. It is called by some the church age. And so as you consider the persecutions and afflictions of the church throughout the last 2000 years, it is evident that there have been perilous seasons which have come and gone. But these perilous seasons will become worse and worse as time goes on, culminating in a severe climax of wickedness in the last hours before Christ’s return.

Certainly, Paul and Timothy were living in a perilous season. They were experiencing persecutions and even executions for their faith. Paul would soon be martyred after writing this letter. In another couple of dozen years, Timothy would be stoned to death for his faith. I would suggest that we that are in the church are entering into a perilous season as well in our lifetimes, and possibly becoming even worse in our children’s lifetimes. When you look at the state of the world, t’s hard not to imagine that we are in the last hours of the last days, but it’s possible that our season will come and go and there may still be some time before Christ’s appearing. We do not know the day or the hour. But we know that perilous seasons will come as a result of ever increasing wickedness, until one day, God will say “Enough! It is time!” And Christ will come in the clouds with millions of His angels in power and in glory to execute God’s wrath and judgment upon the world.

It is the people of the earth who are living during these grievous seasons who are the cause of all the grief. Paul gives a long list of the characteristics of these sinful people. I’m reminded in Psalm 5:5 which we studied last Wednesday evening, that the Psalmist David said, “God hates those who do iniquity.” And he gives a description of boastful, proud, lying, deceiving people as examples of those that God hates. In Romans 1:28-31 there is another list which is very similar to the one here in 2 Timothy. It says in Rom 1:28-32 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [they are] gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

Now let’s read Paul’s list he gives here to Timothy and notice the similarities. Vs 2, “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

Now I don’t want to get bogged down in defining all of those types of sinful behaviors. I think that this list can be summarized as “lovers of self,” “lovers of money,” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” They have no spiritual quotient at all in their lives. They don’t love God, nor love his people. Though they may profess to do both, their actions betray them. And about these sort of people, Paul says “avoid such men as these.” It’s not just males, but females, all people who embody such characteristics, we are told to avoid. To turn away from. The point is, don’t fellowship with such people. Don’t hang out with such people. Don’t try to be friends with such people. Because their actions will rub off on you. They will influence you to follow them into wickedness, just as Eve influenced Adam to follow her into sin.

What becomes more apparent though as Paul continues in this letter, is that these people he is describing are not necessarily pagans, but people in the church. Particularly church leaders seem to be indicated here as a part of this group. The list we read in Romans was describing people who had rejected God wholeheartedly, they didn’t even try to pretend to be Christians. But these people Paul describes, though they have many of the same characteristics of the pagans, are actually according to vs 5, claiming a form of godliness, or you might say, claiming a form of religion. They claim to be godly, to be Christian, to be a part of the church.

Now when we understand that he is talking about so called Christians in the church, and we are to avoid such men as these, then that is a very shocking statement. Of course, we know that we are warned in scripture by the apostles and by Christ, that false teachers will come in to the church who are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing. We are warned that the false doctrines that they teach are actually the doctrines of demons. We are warned that they will lead many people astray, and destroy the faith of many. But it’s still shocking to realize that they are in the church, masquerading as Christians, and we are told to avoid fellowship with such people.

Jesus gave a parable about the wheat and the tares, which I’m sure you are all familiar with. There is a long time in the process of the planting and sowing and maturing of the wheat, when the tares look like the wheat. Jesus said the devil comes in the darkness and sows tares amongst the wheat. The only way to be sure which is which is to wait for the harvest, when the fruit will make it known which are tares and which are wheat. That’s a picture of the church, tares are sown amongst the wheat. And the fruit which shows the difference is either their righteous behavior or their wicked behavior. That’s why Paul gives us this list of the behavior of these people. Their actions show that they are not converted. They may hold to a form of religion but their actions show that they are unregenerate.

Now those false teachers, Paul says, in particular take advantage of those in the church who are weak. Vs6 “For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

A lot of people see some sort of male chauvinistic bent that they think Paul has against women in this statement. So it’s tempting to try to mitigate the effect of Paul’s words here which on the surface seem to be an indictment against women. But actually, I don’t think that Paul was a male chauvinist at all. I think he writes by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So either you are going to believe that the Holy Spirit is a male chauvinist, or you don’t believe that the scriptures are inspired.

The best way to understand it, is to realize that in the church in Paul’s day, and in the church in our day, there were some women who are gullible, who were vulnerable to deceiving spirits, who are weighed down by sins that they have not repented of, nor have they been delivered from. And these false prophets, these wolves in sheep’s clothing have targeted these women. It’s like the way a wolf works in the wild. They go after the weaker sheep, the straying sheep, the ones that have wandered from the herd. Those are the targets of the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

And I would suggest that Paul’s indictment is not so much against the women, even though they are burdened with sins. His indictment is directed towards the false prophets who prey on these gullible women. These women who are looking for spiritual validation without repentance are easy prey for these false prophets. These women are not led by the Spirit, they are led by their impulses and they are taken captive by these false doctrines that promise spiritual validation, but actually produce more ungodliness and are held captive by the false doctrines. As a result, Paul says these women are always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now that is not an indictment against all women. There are women who are strong in the faith, who are knowledgeable of the scriptures. In a previous passage, Paul praises Timothy’s mother and grandmother who raised Timothy in the scriptures and imparted to him the knowledge which leads to salvation. So in the church are many women who live chaste and holy lives. Women that are examples to the younger women. But there are some weak women who are especially vulnerable to the false teachers. These women were home when their husbands were working, and the false teachers knowing they were vulnerable, preyed upon them and targeted them.

I think we see that happen today a lot of times by the use of television. There are some people who mean well, who have good intentions perhaps, who go to some of these so called Christian television broadcasting stations, and they listen to false prophets who tell them what they want to hear. They tell them that they don’t need to repent of sin. I could name names this morning, but I don’t want to give these false prophets any more notoriety than they already have. But I warn you that a lot of the characters who are televised on these Christian TV stations are wolves in sheep’s clothing, that come right into the homes of the unsuspecting and take them captive by deceit. And of course, they try to take their money as well, to fund their lavish lifestyles and private planes and luxury homes. A more primitive version of that was happening in Paul’s day. But it’s still happening in our day and it’s perhaps more prevalent than we realize.

To further describe and warn against these false teachers in the church, Paul gives an historical illustration. He says in vs8 “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these [men] also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.”

The first question we must ask of course, is who is Jannes and Jambres? Well, this is the only place in scripture that they are mentioned by name. But whoever they were they opposed Moses. The answer is found in Jewish rabbinical tradition, which Paul and presumably Timothy were familiar with. That tradition states that Jannes and Jambres were the magicians of special arts who were called up by Pharaoh to counter the miracles that Moses did. When Moses turned the staff into a snake, Jannes and Jambres turned their staffs into snakes. Moses snake ate their snake, but still, they performed mighty miracles by some power other than the power of God. And they were able to duplicate to some degree most of the miracles that Moses did.

Now that is a significant characteristic that Paul is pointing out about these false prophets. Some of them may possess miraculous powers. I believe that a lot of the so called miracles that are being done today in the church at large are not true miracles at all. I know of one such false prophet in particular who admitted that he studied and practiced hypnosis before he supposedly became a Christian. I think a lot of these faith healers are practicing something like that. They seem to always heal a disease that can’t really be quantified by actually seeing the problem. Something a like a pain in someone’s back, or headaches or something that they are supposedly healed from, whereas the poor paralyzed guy in the wheelchair usually leaves the service still in the wheelchair. Those types of false prophets are just charlatans, snake handlers, what I call fake healers.

But what Paul indicates is that some false prophets do possess some spiritual powers. But the spirit that they are of is not of God. It’s demonic. I think there are some preachers or evangelists active today that may fit that category as well. But most of them I think are charlatans. It’s mostly smoke and mirrors, the power of suggestion, perhaps hypnosis. But there are deceiving spirits in the church, and we are told in John to test the spirits. 1John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” That’s why we need the gift of discernment. To distinguish between truth and error. The point that should be clear though, is just because there is some seeming miracle, some power demonstrated in the church, that is not a reason to believe that they are of God. Don’t be deceived by demonstrations of some spiritual power into believing or accepting false teachers who actually oppose the truth.

Paul says, just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regards to the faith. The bottom line, that means these men are not saved. They have a form of religion but they denied the power thereof. They have depraved minds, that means they are unconverted. Oh, they seem to have a power, they claim it’s power from God, but their power is not from God, its’ demonic. Listen, demonic power is real. Demons can make a man superhumanly powerful. Demons can cause physical things to do things that are unnatural. But greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

What is important to take away from this is that we are warned that these demonically powered false prophets are in the church, taking captive people who are easily duped, who are gullible, who are living in sin and looking for an answer that doesn’t require repentance from sin. And we are told to avoid such people. To recognize that they are not teachers of the truth of the gospel, but are actually opposed to the truth. And we must practice discernment to know the difference.

But though Jannes and Jambres at first were able to match Moses miracle for miracle, there came a point when their limit was reached and they were not able to duplicate Moses’ miracles. At that point they had to reluctantly concede that what Moses had done was the power of God. In the same way Paul says the false prophets of his day will fall short and be revealed for who they are. We can assume that the same will be true today about the false prophets that we see on television and so forth. One day their true nature will be revealed and they will be put to shame. That revelation may come in their lifetime, and from time to time we hear about some famous televangelist who comes to public shame because their depravity becomes known. But if not in their lifetime, it will certainly come on the last day, at the judgment seat of Christ, when Jesus said “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (Matt. 7:22,23)

There is the message of great hope in the midst of this great deception that is perpetrated on the church — the spirit of the false prophet will not prevail against the truth of Jesus Christ. The spirit of the last days to deceive is not stronger than the power of Jesus to save. The tremendous truth is that we don’t have to be held captive by the spirit of the world; but by the truth of the gospel we can be set free from the captivity of sin and the condemnation of death and receive life from the Lord Jesus Christ.

An unashamed workman, 2 Timothy 2:14-26     

In the previous section which we looked at last week, Paul said in his admonition to Timothy that he was to be like a strong warrior, that he should be unafraid of making the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. As a warrior for the kingdom of God, he should not shrink back from affliction, persecution or even death, because of the eternal glory that awaited him.

Today in this next passage, Paul changes analogies, saying that Timothy needed to be a workman that was not ashamed. And he uses yet another analogy, he was to be a useful vessel as opposed to a worthless vessel.

Paul is writing to Timothy, who was a sort of assistant apostle to the apostle Paul, and Timothy was to teach these principles to the local pastors of Ephesus and the surrounding region. But though it is written to pastors, it is by extension, given as well to the congregation. Because whatever standard the Lord sets for the pastor is given so that the pastor can be an example to the flock. Paul said to Timothy, “Be an example to the believers in word and conduct.” The apostle Paul said concerning himself that, “You are to follow me as I follow Christ.” So, when we talk about the standard that God has established for the pastor, we should understand that he should be the example for all the church to follow.

In this passage, Paul talks about a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed. That’s in contrast to other church leaders such as Hymenaeus and Philetus who will be ashamed when they face the judgment. And notice in verse 14 you see the word “useless.” And in verse 21 you see the word “useful.” There’s a contrast in this text about being useless or being useful as a good faithful workman, or one that is shameful. Anyone who serves the Lord Jesus Christ I think would desire to be useful, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed.

What does it mean to be useful? Verse 21 says, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master prepared for every good work. The word “vessel” is a household container. It refers to a pot, or a cup, a serving dish, a serving bowl. The master of the house has certain vessels that are honorable. On the other hand, there are some other vessels. They are dishonorable. Verse 20 says, “In a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.”

Paul is giving us a picture, I believe of the church. And the Master here, in this large house, which is the church, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And within the church there are contrasting vessels that serve the congregation. Some of them are honorable. They are made of precious metals; they’re clean; they’re useful for every purpose.

There are others that would never be for proper food service, that are not for any clean usage. The honorable vessels are made of gold and silver. The dishonorable vessels are made of wood and earthenware, pottery. The contrast is deliberately extreme; the honorable vessels in the house were what you served the food on, and the dishonorable vessels are what you took the waste out in.

What does it mean to be a useful vessel? What is it to be a gold and silver serving dish, to serve people the bread of life? Well, if you go back to verse 21, it says there are three things that describe the useful vessel. First of all, it is sanctified. Secondly, the Master employs it for His good purposes. And thirdly, it is prepared for good works.

Now let’s go back to verse 20 and look at the analogy. A large house – this pictures the church. There are valuable, honorable vessels that are used to serve the food, but there are also the vessels which have become corrupted and are only good for common use. That this house is the church can be drawn from verse 19, where it says, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands.” Most all commentators think that phrase “the firm foundation of God” refers to the church. In 1 Tim.3:15 the church is called by Paul the pillar and foundation of the truth.

So, Paul gives here seven characteristics of an honorable vessel, or of an unashamed workman. And this is what we should all desire to be; unashamed, a vessel for honor, which is useful to the Lord. So seven characteristics are given here. The first one will take longer to get through, but the rest will go pretty quickly.

Number one thing that is necessary to being an unashamed workman, or honorable vessel is Biblical fidelity. Back in verse 14 we read this, “Remind them of these things” – things concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ – “and solemnly charge them in the presence of God.”

“Solemnly charge them in the presence of God” – that is to say you have an accountability to God; you are visible to God. It should be a sobering thing to realize God is watching you. And what is the charge? In chapter 4 vs 2, he states that charge to pastors in a positive sense, to preach the word of God, the truth of God. Paul charges them in the negative sense here, “Not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.” The word “ruin,” by the way, here is the Greek word katastrophē. It is catastrophic; it is devastating; it is destructive.

What does it mean wrangling about words? To wrangle is to wrestle, it’s an argument on the strength of human wisdom, philosophy, human reason from the viewpoint of the world. The argument of the church which uses the reasoning of the world has an outcome which is always catastrophic. In contrast to that, Paul says you should accurately handle the word of truth.

Verse 15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Forget about wrangling with words of human wisdom. Instead accurately handle the Word of Truth. Paul says “Be diligent” – spoudazō in the Greek – it means to give maximum effort. The King James said, “Study to show yourself approved”. That may not be the best translation, but I do think it is applicable because if you’re going to handle accurately the word of God you must be careful to study the word. To compare scripture with scripture. To meditate on the word. We are instructed in the scriptures to meditate on the word. Paul said back in verse 7, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Think on the word, meditate on it so that we interpret it and apply it correctly.

The idea presented here is not just to be a student, but to apply what you have learned and become expert in it. It’s a picture of a master workman who has perfected his craft. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed.”

Be diligent to perfect your workmanship. What is the work? It is accurately handling the Word of truth.For a pastor especially your craft is expounding the word of God. It’s understanding correctly what the Holy Spirit is indicating in His word. You know, the idea that some pastors seem to have is that they can improve upon the gospel. Really, that must be what they think because they use the word hardly at all, or at the best, they use it as a springboard to go off down some rabbit trail of their own making. But the word of God is what is powerful. The truth of God’s word is what is able to pierce the heart.

Heb 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, man’s words are “much ado about nothing.” But the word of God is able to convict, to cleanse, and to give the knowledge that leads to salvation. And so the pastor should be diligent in his study and faithful in his use of the word of God if he is to be effective and be approved by God.

You know, my goal is not to win your approval with my witticisms and articulation and oratory skills. I gave up trying to be an entertainer years ago, realizing that not only was it beyond my ability, but it was not a worthwhile goal. My goal is to win the approval of the Lord God as a faithful messenger of what He has already said in His word.

And so Paul repeats that idea verse 16 again, because we need to hear it again. “But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it leads to further ungodliness, and that kind of talk spreads like gangrene.” Worldly wisdom, twisting doctrine to be acceptable to the world, using philosophy to try to minister instead of the truth of God only leads to further ungodliness. That kind of talk, that kind of sermon, doesn’t produce sanctification, it doesn’t produce more Christlikeness in the hearer, it produces more worldliness. Worldliness is the opposite of godliness. If you preach the philosophy, the reasoning of the world, then don’t be surprised to find it produces more worldliness. It cannot produce godliness. You must teach the word of God if you expect the outcome to be godliness. If you teach the world’s doctrines, then ungodliness spreads like gangrene. In other words, it corrupts more and more until it destroys the whole body.

Paul then gives a human illustration of this type of worldly preaching, “Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus” – these were two pastors who had turned from faithfully preaching the word, and had developed a dialogue with the world, they bought into the lies of Satan. They went so far astray from the truth, that they were saying that the resurrection had already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. We’re not sure what that false doctrine entailed, but it was probably a spiritualization of the resurrection, no longer believing in a bodily resurrection. The result though was catastrophic, it upset, or better overthrew, or destroyed the faith of some of the church.

This kind of false wisdom is the opposite of the true ministers of Christ. Because verse 19 says, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” So the firm foundation is the church, and God knows those who are truly His church, because they abstain from wickedness. This idea Paul is speaking of is borrowed from Numbers 16, which is about Korah’s rebellion and God’s judgment. Back in Numbers 16, judgment from God fell on those men who had rebelled against Moses’ leadership. And God’s judgment will again fall on those who rebel against His word. But God knows those who are true, faithful workmen. God knows His true and faithful ministers because they are faithful to the word, and it’s evident because they abstain from wickedness. Good behavior is always the product of good theology, but wickedness is the product of worldly philosophy masquerading as theology.

So, the call to be a vessel unto honor – useful to the Master, prepared for every good work, a workman that is unashamed – is then a call to biblical truth. And right alongside that, number two, it is a call to a pure fellowship. Verse 21 “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”

The things he should cleanse himself from are the dishonorable things, the common things, the unholy things, the world’s philosophy, the carnal knowledge that spreads like gangrene and causes the faith of men and women to be destroyed. In the rebellion of Korah the Lord told the Israelites to separate themselves from the wicked lest they too be destroyed. Look back at vs 20, “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.” So there is pure fellowship which is honorable, godly, and useful for every good work. And there is dishonorable fellowship, which is hallmarked by ungodliness and false doctrine. And they are both found in the church at large.

Jesus gave a parable about a mustard bush which is often misinterpreted, in my opinion. In Mat 13:31-32 it says Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all [other] seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.”

The problem with most interpretations is that they confuse two different sayings about mustard seeds. In one, Jesus compares faith to the size of a mustard seed. But in this case, Jesus teaches that this mustard seed grows into something abnormal. It should produce a bush, but it produces a tree which is bigger than all the other plants, so that the birds come and nest in it’s branches. In a previous parable about the sower, Jesus likened the birds of the air to the devil and his angels. So if we are to understand this correctly, it would seem that Jesus was saying the church universal was going to grow, but the growth was going to be abnormally large and would actually give refuge to the devil and his angels, which are the ministers of false doctrine.

I think that ties in with what Paul is saying here. In a large house, God’s church, there are honorable and dishonorable vessels. The dishonorable vessels are those pastors, those teachers that have adulterated or even abandoned the truth of God’s word for the sake of the world’s acceptance and approval. But they are not approved by God. Some of you folks visiting here today are perhaps attending churches back home that have abandoned the truth of God’s word. The pastor is teaching an adulterated version of the gospel which has been sanctified by the culture of the world, rather than sanctified by the Word of God. You do not know what spirit you are partaking of. I would suggest that unless you want to become corrupted like them, and be cut off, then you get out of those churches, stop supporting those churches for the sake of fellowship with the world, and find a church where you can have pure fellowship in the truth.

The third thing Paul says is this, “If you want to be a useful vessel, if you want to be an honorable vessel, you must have not only a biblical fidelity and pure fellowship, but thirdly, a clean heart. Verse 22, “Now flee from youthful lusts.” That’s the negative. The positive is, “Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

Youthful lusts are not the sole property of the youth. Old people can have youthful lusts as well. Older people are just people that haven’t learned lessons that they should have learned in their youth. Lusts include all the things of this world that are in opposition to the truth of God. The desire for physical gratification, or sexual gratification, or financial gratification that the devil tells you can be found outside of the bounds that God has established for them. God gave us sex, He gives man the ability to make money, He blesses the work of our hands, He gives us things which we can enjoy. But to lust is to want more than what God has given, and use ungodly means to get such things.

Paul says run from such things. These lusts of the world are so destructive, we should run from them, the way Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife. Don’t dare try to have God and have the world as well. Run away from the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the world. But there are things we should run to, and that is righteousness, faith, love and peace. If we pursue those things, we will have a pure heart, a clean heart.

He says we should pursue righteousness. That means doing right according to God’s standards. Righteousness means living in harmony with God’s Law, living in obedience to His Word. The second thing we pursue is faith. Faith is trusting that God’s way is best. It’s being faithful to God. It’s being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted you with. The third thing to pursue is love, a sacrificial love for others. 1 Cor. 13 says “Love is patient, love is kind [and] is not jealous; love does not brag [and] is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong [suffered,] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” That’s agape love. Peace means that they have made peace with God and man. They are no longer rebellious, no longer enemies of God.

And notice what he says at the end of the verse, “With all those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” That’s speaking of salvation. To call upon the Lord is to call upon Him for forgiveness, for life, for mercy, for grace, for His Spirit. David called upon the Lord in Psalm 51: “Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Those who have called on Him pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.

Number four, if you would be an unashamed workman, a vessel fit for the Master’s use, you must have a discerning mind. And here he comes right back to the same issue again, verse 23, “Refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.” Foolish and ignorant speculations is a description of the wisdom of the world.

1Co 1:21, 25 says “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not [come to] know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. … 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” The foolish and ignorant speculations of false teaching, and worldly wisdom cannot produce godliness or a pure heart, but it will produce quarreling, squabbling, an impure heart, a deceived mind. Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit. That is the job of the Holy Spirit, to give us discernment to distinguish between truth and error. So we should pray for discernment that we may not be deceived as we study the word and fellowship in the church.

Number five, if you want to be a useful vessel, honorable, you must be characterized by a manner that is not combative or argumentative. Vs 24, ““The Lord’s bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged.” Foolish and ignorant speculations produce quarrels, arguments, contention. But the useful vessel, the unashamed workman must not be quarrelsome. I don’t preach the word of God to try to cause dissension or an argument, or to try to pick a fight with people. I preach the word of God to take fighting off the table. I am not the one saying a certain thing is a sin, or that we should run from certain things, or avoid certain types of people. If the Bible says it, then the Lord is saying it. Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger. I’m going to say what God says. I’m not making this up on my own. If you don’t like the message, your complaint shouldn’t be with me, it’s with God.

Number six is a humble spirit. Vs 25 says “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.” The Biblical definition of gentleness is not weakness, but meekness. Meekness is power under control. It was a word used in talking about training horses. The tremendous power of the horse that is under the control of it’s rider is said to be gentled. So it should be with us. Our message should be under the control of the Lord and given in the spirit of humility.

Humility is essential to have as you try to correct those that are in opposition to the truth. We don’t have some air of supereriority as if we earned our salvation through our piety or by our works. We are sinners saved by grace, by God’s mercy. That understanding is the basis for our humility in dealing with those who are not saved. But for the grace of God, there would I be. That’s an attitude of humility, having the heart of a servant, being concerned for other’s needs.

And then finally, number seven, seems almost counterintuitive. if you want to be a vessel unto honor, you must have a confrontive will. If you go back to verse 25, “With humility correcting those who are in opposition” – you’ve got to be willing to correct. Go over to chapter 4, verse 2, he says it again, “Reprove, rebuke, exhort.” First Timothy 3 says that the Word give by inspiration of God is profitable for instruction and correction.

Being humble, being gentle, being loving, doesn’t mean that you don’t tell the truth in regards to sin and rebellion against God. But rather we speak the truth in love. If we didn’t love you, we wouldn’t tell you the truth about sin and the wrath of God against sin. But because we love you, we must tell you the truth. But thank God the truth is an antidote to sin. The truth of the gospel is that the righteousness that is required comes through faith in Christ Jesus as a gift of God to the person who recognizes their need of it, who recognizes that they are lost, they are a sinner without hope. To that one who looks to Christ, God gives the gift of righteousness.

But it could also be applied to a believer who has fallen into some false doctrine, or some sin, and needs to be confronted with the truth so that by that truth he can come back to his senses, escape the snare of the Devil where he’s been held captive. But it doesn’t happen without confrontation.

By the way, verse 26, it says, “May come to their senses.” He uses a verb ananēphō which means to return from drunkenness, to sober up. It’s used only here in the New Testament. There’s all kinds of lies floating out around there, the lies of Satan filtered into Christianity by the dialogue that the church always wants to have with the culture. These false teachers numb the conscience, deceive the mind, paralyze the will, and cause some believers to fall into a spiritual drunkenness from which they need to be delivered because it is a snare of the Devil. And the devil tries to hold them captive, as long as he can, and render them useless. So, we need to deliver them by a confrontive will. So we are to be compassionate, a loving, and humble, yes, but we don’t back off when it comes to truth.

So you want to be an honorable vessel, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, you want to be a useful servant to the Lord? Then you need Biblical fidelity, you need pure fellowship, a clean heart, a discerning mind, a gentle manner, a humble spirit, and a confrontive will. I pray that’s your desire and the desire of all who truly know the Lord and are called to His service.

Remember Jesus! 2 Timothy 2:8-13

I have read many commentaries, and listened to very many sermons by preachers who for the most part I admire, who seem to deride Timothy as a weak man, a timid man, a fearful man.  And they say such things with such certainty and conviction, that I suppose I have been prone to almost believe them.  I say almost, because I don’t really believe them.  They say that poor Timmy was young and timid and being fearful and shy had caused him to have poor digestion and a continually upset stomach.

I said in our previous study I am not going to be surprised to find out when we get to heaven that Timothy was none of those things.  First of all, he wasn’t some timid teenager at the time of this writing.  Most Bible scholars agree that Timothy was about 32 years of age when Paul wrote this letter.  About the same age Jesus was at the height of His ministry.

If I had to paint a picture of Timothy, I would probably paint a picture of a big strapping, burly looking fellow with a long full  red beard, and very muscular.  He was probably very athletic, because Paul constantly uses metaphors of athletes and boxers and wrestlers and soldiers and farmers as the means by which to illustrate Biblical truths to him.  And I’m sure it was because those were the types of men that Timothy probably could identify with.

What these uber critical Bible teachers and preachers are missing here is the fact that Timothy was in a fight for his life.  He was in a fight for the extinction of the gospel.  Paul, his mentor and spiritual father, his erstwhile traveling companion whom he had traveled in dangerous conditions with all over the Roman Empire, was in prison again, rotting in a Roman dungeon awaiting his execution. And Timothy knew that the same fate more than likely awaited him.  I don’t think Timothy was scared to die, he might have been more inclined to take up arms and fight his way out of the persecution that had arisen against Christians. But Paul is writing to tell him not to fight with sword and spear, but to fight with spiritual means, and be wiling to suffer and even die for the gospel, which though it might appear to be defeat to the world will actually accomplish greater progress for the kingdom of God.

 I have to admit I get a little miffed at these preachers and commentators, even though I admire most of them on a certain  level.  But I’m a little irritated because they speak condescendingly about Timothy as some sort of sissy, as they write from the air conditioned comfort of their office in their multimillion dollar church building, sitting at their leather executive chair – arm chair warriors for Christ as they sip their Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte with their little pinkie sticking out.  And yet they have the nerve to denigrate someone like Timothy as being so timid and fearful that he gets an upset stomach. Meanwhile, you have to wonder how much suffering they have done lately for the gospel in comparison.

So Paul is not writing to a weakling, timid Timothy who needs to man up and stop sucking his thumb.  No!  Paul is writing to a hero of the faith, a man who had probably already risked his life more times than we can imagine. Most of the trials that Paul lists in 2 Corinthians could also be attributed to Timothy.  In 2 Corinithians Paul gives greetings from himself and Timothy in the introduction.  So we can assume that Timothy was with Paul for a lot of the trials listed in chapter 11:25-28 where Paul says, “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;  on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.  And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”  

Those are the sort of things Timothy had experienced as well as he traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys.  So Timothy was no timid weakling. He was a warrior for the kingdom of God in every since of the word.  But what Paul is now counseling him about is that he should not fear dying for the gospel.  Timothy would in fact one day die as a martyr.  But until that day came, he should be confident that his life is hid in Christ, and the Lord was his defender and shield. 

I’ve often said, that there is no safer place than to be in the center of God’s will.  And there is no more dangerous place than to be out of God’s will. If you are a man or woman of God and you are living for the Lord and working for His kingdom, then you are bulletproof until the day you finish the job which God has called you to do.  When he is finished with you, then he may take your life, but until He decides to do so, nothing can hurt you. And what Timothy needs to be reminded of is that losing his life is part of the plan. But it’s not defeat, it’s victory.

So then Paul encourages Timothy to not fear what man can do, not fear what Satan might do, but bravely fight the good fight until death. The kind of courage that Paul is speaking of reminds me of the type of courage that was the hallmark of a Cheyenne military society that was in existence in the mid nineteenth century.  This particular military society was known as the Dog Soldiers.  In battle, these warriors would dismount and stake themselves to the ground by means of a sash tied around their body.  And from that position, which they were unable to leave, they would fight to either their death or victory. But whether or not they survived the battle was not really their goal, they were more concerned with whether or not they fought a good fight, fought with courage.

To encourage Timothy then in this fight to the death, Paul tells him to remember Jesus. Vs8, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel.”Now how’s that for a battle cry?  Back in the days after the fall of the Alamo, where every man defending that fort died in battle, the Texans used it as a battle cry in their fight with Mexico.  Their battle cry which roused Texans to victory was “remember the Alamo!”  

Paul says, “remember Jesus!” That battle cry should stir our heart as well.  There are some important doctrinal truths that we should understand are enshrined in that cry.  First he says Remember Jesus Christ. That’s not to say that Timothy was in danger of forgetting about Jesus. By no means.  But rather to keep certain characteristics of Jesus foremost in his mind, as an example, which Timothy is to follow.

Notice he says remember Jesus Christ, that’s Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One from God, the One promised in the OT who would crush Satan’s head, who would rule with a rod of iron, who would defeat all His enemies.

Secondly, he says “risen from the dead.” That fact should give great comfort and courage to Timothy, that as Christ rose from the dead, so we will be raised from the dead. 1Cor. 15:20-23 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.  For since by a man [came] death, by a man also [came] the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” So first of all Jesus submitted Himself to death on a cross,  and then as Christ was raised from the dead, so we will be raised.

But I would like to explain that this verse is saying the body will be raised.  In the interim between death, or what is referred to as sleep for the Christian, the spirit of the man in Christ is alive. Jesus told the story of Lazarus and the rich man and they were taken to Paradise and Hades respectfully to await the resurrection. But they were alive in the interim.  Peter spoke of that interim stage in regards to Christ saying in 1Peter 3:18-19 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [now] in prison.” So as Christ was alive in the Spirit in death, so are we that believe in Him.

You know, there is no more fierce warrior than the one who does not fear death. For those who would believe in Him, Jesus said, “He who lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  I ask you today two questions.  Do you believe in Christ? And secondly, do you believe that you will never die?  Or do you live in constant fear of death? I suggest to you that if you truly believed you will never die, then you would live differently than you do. Though this body may pass away, our soul and spirit will live forever. Those who have been born again in their spirit receive the life of Christ, which is eternal life, that they might never die and not fear death.

The next characteristic of Christ that Timothy should remember is that He is “the descendent of David.” At first that may seem a little out of place.  But this fact that Jesus is the descendent of David teaches us a couple of important doctrines.  First, it is a reference to the fact that Jesus was not some mythical figure, but an actual man, a descendant of the royal line of David. But being a descendant of David is necessary if He is the Messiah, the Anointed One from God, the One who will rule over the earth with a rod of iron. It means He is fully man and fully God.

But I think even more to Paul’s point is the inference that as King David was the representative of Israel so Jesus is the representative of the church.  What great feat was David known for?  Everyone knows that David killed Goliath the giant. What we need to understand from that is that David was a type of Jesus Christ.  When Goliath issued his challenge, it was that one man from each nation would come out and engage in battle, and the victor from that fight would win the battle for the nation.  David slew Goliath and in effect won the victory for his nation  over the Philistines.

So when we consider that Christ is the descendent of David, we should understand that He is our representative, who fought the battle against sin, and the world and death and Hades, and He defeated all his foes.  His resurrection was proof that He had overcome the devil and the world, and taken the keys of death and Hell. And in turn, our victory over sin and death was accomplished through Him.  Once again, Timothy might draw courage from remembering the battle which Jesus accomplished through His death, and that He arose from the grave victorious.

Now that is the gospel, the good news.  That Jesus Christ our substitute, paid our penalty for sin by His death on the cross, and by His stripes we are healed, by His death we are given life.  Timothy should be emboldened to give up his life if necessary for that same gospel, that others might be saved from death and given life.

Paul says in vs 9, that because of that gospel, he too is suffering.  He says, “for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal.”  Jesus was tried as a criminal.  And Paul was suffering as a criminal. Timothy would perhaps suffer as a criminal. I think the day is coming, when Christians here in America will suffer as a criminal.  If you believe and proclaim the true gospel of Jesus Christ, it will be considered hate speech.  It already is being outlawed on social media.  And I can imagine that in the not too distant future it won’t be that inconceivable that you can be arrested for speaking the truth of God’s word.

But though Paul, or Timothy or one day even we might be arrested and held in prison for the gospel, Paul says that the gospel is not imprisoned.  Vs 9, “but the word of God is not imprisoned.”  At that very moment, Paul was in prison writing the word of God in the letter to Timothy.  That letter was delivered to Timothy, and read in the churches, and it continues to be proclaimed to this day, 2000 years later.

Satan’s attempts to silence the gospel, to destroy the word of God have never been successful, and they never will be successful. As 1 Peter 1:25 states, “the word of Lord endures forever.” Martin Luther wrote a hymn of which the last stanza says, “The Word of God will never yield, to any creature living, He stands with us upon the field, His grace and Spirit giving.  Take they child and wife, goods, name, fame and life, though all this be done, yet have they nothing won, the kingdom still remaineth.” They burned at the stake William Tyndale for translating the Bible into English, and yet the torch that man lit by his sacrifice has become a fire that has engulfed the entire world. The gospel is not imprisoned.

This triumph of the gospel causes Paul to continue with these courageous words in vs 10 “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus [and] with [it] eternal glory.”  Since the gospel will triumph, Paul endures all trials and persecutions, even to death. Though he is on death row, he is confident of victory, and whatever sufferings he has to endure he knows are only temporary and cannot compare to the glory that awaits him.

His sufferings he endures for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also my obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it, eternal glory.”  Paul is willing to lay down his life for the sake of others, that they may be saved.  That is love.  We often wonder about how to understand the command that Jesus gave concerning our responsibility to love one another, even to love our enemies.  Jesus said “no greater love has any man but this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  That is love, to sacrifice your life so that others may live.  To disregard the desires and pleasures of life for yourself in order to share the gospel with others, so that they might be saved is the essence of fulfilling the command to love one another.

And that salvation produces what Paul refers to as eternal glory.  There is so much that could be said about that, but at the very least, it is a reference to eternal life.  Once again, Paul is emphasizing the eternal life that we have in Christ, as a reminder to Timothy to be courageous in the face of persecution and possible death.

A few moments ago I quoted part of a hymn that was written by Martin Luther.  I’ve often been tempted to learn how to play it on the guitar and then teach it to the church.  But it is not an easy hymn to play.  However, what it does well is teach sound doctrine.  That’s why we sing songs, not just to give praise to God as if God is just sitting in heaven wringing his hands, wishing we would praise Him.  We do praise Him in song, but just as importantly, we remind ourselves of the doctrines of our faith, and in song we confess our faith before men.  In past times, and I suppose even in the Armed Services today, there were battle songs that were sung to lift the men’s morale and encourage them in their duty.

Perhaps to achieve a similar result is why we sing Christian songs today. Or at least, it should be the reason we sing.  Hymns are a way to teach doctrine, and to assure our hearts of certain truths, and the recitation of those truths should encourage and strengthen our faith, and give us courage to face the battle.  The Psalms which we read on Sunday morning, and which we are also studying at this time on Wednesday evenings are examples of what hymns should be.

So Paul quotes what many Bible scholars believe is a popular hymn of the early church as a means to remind Timothy of certain truths, and to strengthen his faith to endure the trials that he must go through. Some have even called it a martyrs hymn.  It’s probably not the entire hymn, but a portion of it.  That hymn then is found in vs11, “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;  If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;  If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

The phrase, “it is a trustworthy statement” may not be part of the hymn, but rather Paul is saying that this statement of the hymn is trustworthy, or reliable. He says it is trustworthy. Trust is a significant thing.  If you trust someone, or something, then you are willing to bet your life on it.  And I think that is what Paul is indicating here.  That here are some truths that you can bank on, that you can trust with your life.

The first line is “For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him.”  This is the underlying theme of the whole passage; this idea of facing death without fear, knowing that the life we have with the Lord is eternal, it will never die.

But it has an even deeper meaning than that. It also is talking about our salvation.  If we died with Christ, speaks of when He as our representative man died in our place, we that trust in Him for salvation also died with Him.  We died to the old man, and we are raised up spiritually to live for  Him.  We see that illustrated in baptism.  I often say when I dip the person under the water, “buried with Christ in the likeness of His death,” and then when I raise them up from the water, I say “raised with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.”  That’s a picture of what happens when we are saved.  We die with Christ to sin, die to the old man, and are raised with him in newness of life in the likeness of His resurrection.

Rom 6:4-11 says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with [Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [in the likeness] of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with [Him,] in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

That statement then should give Timothy and us the courage to face death.  But it also gives us the assurance that we have the power over sin, and the power to live the life that we have been given in Christ. 

The next statement is “if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” If we endure the trials here on earth in the flesh, if we endure persecutions and afflictions, even if necessary unto death, then we will receive a reward in heaven.  We who are servants here will be kings with Him there.  I don’t know exactly how we will reign, or over whom we will reign, but we shall receive a crown, an inheritance, which the Lord compares with reigning as kings.  Peter calls it a royal priesthood. One thing is for sure, the promise is trustworthy that if we endure trials here on earth for the kingdom of God, then we will reign with Christ when His kingdom is consummated.

The third stanza says, “I we deny Him, He will also deny us.” How do we deny Christ? The foremost reason would be they deny Jesus the rightful place as Lord of their lives.  They deny that He is the Savior of the world, the Messiah sent from God.  They deny that He is God incarnate, and that He died on the cross and was resurrected from the dead and now sits at the Father’s right hand.  They deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  The cry of the Israelites at His first coming was, “we will not have this man rule over us.”  That is to deny Christ.  Jesus said it plainly: “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33). There is a fate worse than earthly persecution.  And that is to find yourself at the judgment seat of God, and Jesus says, “depart from Me, I never knew you.”

The last stanza says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 

If we are faithless… what does that mean?  I don’t know that it speaks of a lack of faith, because no man can be saved without faith in Christ.  It may refer to the temporary lack of faith in the face of persecution that Peter fell victim to when he denied the Lord.  Did Peter lose his salvation that night around the fire of the soldiers who had arrested Jesus?  He certainly denied knowing Jesus, and he cursed to add assurance to his claim.  

But I don’t think the Bible teaches that Peter lost his salvation.  I think it’s obvious that Peter was saved, and his conviction afterwards is evidence of that.  But what is important is that Christ did not prove faithless when Peter had a failing of faith.  Jesus prophesied in Luke 22:31-34 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded [permission] to sift you like wheat;  but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”  And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”  

We are told that after Peter’s denial, after Christ’s resurrection, the Lord sought out Peter and restored him, and gave him the ministry to feed His sheep, and tend His lambs.  The Lord is faithful. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord understands our weaknesses.  He loves us with an everlasting love.  I think another illustration of the faithfulness of the Lord is the story of the prodigal son.  We all know the story.  A son told his father that he wanted his inheritance and his father gave it to him.  But the son went to a far away country and spent his money foolishly on wild living. But soon he found himself with no money left, and took a job tending pigs that he might eat the pods that were their food. At some point he came to his senses, and realized that even a hired servant fared better in his father’s house than he was doing.  And so he decided to come home and ask his father to make him as one of the hired servants.  But when he was still a long ways off from home, his father looked down the road and saw him walking a long way off.  And the father hitched up his skirts and started running down the road, and when he got to his son, he embraced him, pig smell and all, and took him home and cleaned him up and restored him to his rightful place in the home.  That’s a picture of a faithful God who cannot deny Himself.  He cannot deny that this is His son. He cannot deny His love for His son. And so He will do whatever it takes to restore those who may have fallen, those who have drifted away, those who think they no longer want to be under the care of their father.  Yet the faithfulness of God never fails. The Lord will restore the lost sheep, the wandering lamb who fell into sin.  Because the lamb belongs to Him.

There is an old hymn that we used to sing in church when I was a boy.  I haven’t heard it for years.  And I will close with this;

1 I’ve wandered far away from God, Now I’m coming home; 

The paths of sin too long I’ve trod, Lord, I’m coming home.

Refrain: Coming home, coming home, Nevermore to roam, 

Open wide Thine arms of love, Lord, I’m coming home.

2 I’ve wasted many precious years, Now I’m coming home; 

I now repent with bitter tears, Lord, I’m coming home. [Refrain] 

3 I’ve tired of sin and straying, Lord, Now I’m coming home; 

I’ll trust Thy love, believe Thy word, Lord, I’m coming home. [Refrain] 

4 My soul is sick, my heart is sore, Now I’m coming home; 

My strength renew, my hope restore, Lord, I’m coming home. [Refrain]

If that song describes you today, I hope that you will come home to Christ today.  He is waiting, and He is willing to restore you, to strengthen you, and give you hope.  

Keeping the faith, 1 Timothy 6:11-16

If we have been born of God, or what is commonly referred to as born again, then we have become the children of God. Paul addresses such a person here, speaking in an immediate context to Timothy, his child in the faith, and calling him a man of God. That’s a reference to the spiritual maturity that is expected and desired once a person has become born again as a child of God; they are matured into a man or woman of God.

Timothy has become a man of God, and he is a man of God in a deeper sense, as a spokesman of God, in the same vein as Moses was called a man of God, or Elisha was called a man of God. Timothy is a minister of the gospel as a sort of deputy apostle. He is acting on behalf of the apostle Paul in setting up and establishing the churches in the region of Ephesus and selecting and instructing the pastors of those churches. That was the role of an apostle. They were the foundation of the church.

And so in the immediate context Paul is writing to Timothy as a man of God in the position of a deputy apostle. But I believe it is entirely appropriate for us to see ourselves that are saved and mature in our faith as also men or women of God, and apply the same instructions that were given to Timothy to ourselves. We may not have the same role as Timothy, but we all are given a role as ministers, and we are even called priests of God. Not all of us are called to be a pastor of a church, perhaps, but we are commissioned to be an ambassador of the gospel, going into our world to proclaim the gospel.

That role as a minister that we are given is described and prescribed for us by the apostle Peter, saying in 1Peter 2:9 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God’s] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” That is our ministry, our priestly duty, to proclaim Christ, and to testify of the truth of the gospel.

So rather than interpreting this passage today as only relating to pastors, or just to men such as Timothy, we can reliably apply it to everyone that has come out from the darkness of sin and ignorance into the light of the truth of the gospel. The man or woman of God is then instructed by Paul in this passage to conform to the doctrine of godliness, and to accomplish that to do four things; what they are to flee from, what they are to follow after, what they are to fight for, and what they are to be faithful to.

Paul begins by saying what the man of God should flee from. Vs 11 “But flee from these things, you man of God….” Now to find out what things he should flee from, we must go back to the preceding verses. First we must flee from a different doctrine, not conforming to the doctrine of godliness. This doctrine or teaching we should flee from is not sound. It has no basis in scripture. This is simply the doctrine of worldliness. It’s mixing a little scripture with a lot of man’s wisdom and a mind set on the world. It’s what he says later in vs 5 as a depraved mind and deprived of the truth. That’s a worldly mind. It’s a doctrine that is not derived from the truth, but deprived of the truth. You know, it doesn’t take much error to make what may have elements of truth, to not be the truth anymore. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So doctrinal purity, doctrinal truth is essential, and that man who eschews the truth of God for the truth according to man, is not wise. We should flee that sort of doctrine.

Paul went on to say that sort of false doctrine produces bad attributes. And those bad attributes are “he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”

So bad doctrine produces conceit, and that conceit, that self interest, selfish concern, results in a lack of understanding of sound doctrine. Instead they question the words of scripture to contrive a doctrine that appeals to their lusts of the flesh. And such conceit produces selfishness that is evidenced by strife, envy, evil suspicions. They want what seems best for themselves, to the point of disregarding the needs of others.

And that conceited attitude thinks that they can use the gospel, or their Christianity, to get more of the riches of this world. Paul goes on to talk about the love of money being a root of evil, and some longing for it have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves many griefs. So Paul says flee from such things. As mature men and women of God, we should flee those types of desires, flee the lusts of the flesh, flee the self conceit that produces such selfish, hateful behavior.

Instead, Paul says what the man of God should follow after, or pursue after. He gives us a list of different kind of behavior characterized by “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.” This is the exact opposite of the conceited, self interested behavior they should flee from. This is selflessness, dying to the lusts of the world, and pursuing godliness, being of the same mind set as God.

That’s what Phl 2:3-8 talks about; “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not [merely] look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

That’s what we should follow after, the same attributes that Christ exhibited as an example for us, that we might follow in his footsteps. Peter said in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” So as Christ was exemplary in these things, so we should pursue righteousness, be godly, or holy in our behavior, in our speech, remain faithful, love others with a sacrificial love, love them enough to share the gospel with them, to serve them.

And that faith and love will be characterized by perseverance. Perseverance in this sense I think is speaking of endurance. Endurance is an undervalued virtue in the church today. But endurance is sometimes all we can do when we go through various trials. Our faith is sometimes stretched to the breaking point. It seems like everything is going wrong, that the devil is winning on every front. When we go through trials like that, James said, we should consider it as joy, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, or perseverance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” Endurance is a character trait of the spiritually mature man or woman of God. I can assure you that endurance or perseverance is not always fun, but James says we should count it as joy. We endure it as a trial, but we count it as joy. It is something that may bring weeping may last through the long night of suffering, but a shout of joy in the morning when we see Jesus.

So we have seen what we should flee from, what we should follow after, and then Paul says what we should fight for. Vs12 “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Bible scholars tell us that the Greek word in the original text is one that means contest, and the anguish and conflict that is concerned with it. So from that, they surmise that what Paul has in mind here is not a race, which is a commonly used metaphor of Paul, but more likely a boxing match.

It’s kind of funny to think of faith as a fight isn’t it? But it really is. We are constantly in a conflict with lies, with doubt, with fear, with attacks of the devil, with heartaches, with disappointments. It’s a real struggle to maintain faith, to persevere in faith in the midst of such attacks. In this first letter to Timothy Paul is out of prison. But in his second letter he is in prison, and I think it’s obvious to Paul that he isn’t getting out of there alive. And so he writes to Timothy near the end of that letter, in 2Tim. 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” I put that verse on my dad’s gravestone. He was a minister of the gospel, who to some degree might have not looked like a winner from the world’s perspective, but from God’s perspective, he had fought the good fight, he had kept the faith, and there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness which the Lord will award to him.

But notice in that verse Paul likens the fight to finishing the course. Paul had finished the course that God had called him to run. He finished his ministry. And he says he has kept the faith. That’s a reference to endurance, to perseverance. He kept the faith in spite of many attacks against him from all quarters. Faith is a race, an endurance race. But it’s also a battle. Its a battle against the lusts of the flesh, against the desires of this world, and against the lies of the devil.

We should remember though that according to 2Cor. 10:3-4 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” Our faith is the victory over our enemies. We fight the lie of Satan and the world with the truth of the scripture.

That’s why Paul joins that statement with another which says, lay hold of the eternal life to which you are called. Faith is believing, and believing is receiving. Eternal life, new life in Christ, is not something only available in the future, but right now. The idea is that Timothy is to grab hold of it and hang on to it. Possess the life of Christ now. Because as you are confident that you have eternal life now, you can proceed to serve the Lord without fear. Our life belongs to the Lord. He gives it, He will protect it, and He will not take it away until we have finished our course.

There is another aspect of laying hold of eternal life. Paul says Timothy “made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” There doesn’t seem to be a consensus of opinion by Bible scholars on what he means by saying the good confession. But if you notice in the next verse, he says “Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” So whatever the good confession is, both Timothy and Christ seem to have made it.

I think it can only be one thing for Timothy. I think it is confessing Jesus Christ as Lord. Paul says in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This was written at a time when Rome was trying to force people to say “Caesar is lord,” and they did so under penalty of death. So to publicly confess Jesus as Lord was to deny Caesar, and to put yourself at risk of death.

But we know that confession is also making the point that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One from God, the Savior of the world. It’s also understood that the Messiah was to be the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And furthermore, it should be understood that to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess Him as YOUR Lord, your Sovereign, your Master. Thus your life belongs to Him. He controls your destiny. Timothy more than likely at his baptism publicly confessed Jesus as Lord in the presence of many witnesses, thus proclaiming his salvation and obtaining eternal life. And that faith is the victory over sin and death.

So we are to flee some things, follow after other things, fight the good fight, and then finally, Paul says what we are to be faithful to. Vs 13 “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him [be] honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

Now there is a lot that is said there, but the primary point he makes is that we are to be faithful to keep the commandment. Now that sounds way too legalistic for most of us, so we better look at the original language and see what we might find that is more palatable for us. And we find in so doing that sixty nine times out of 71 it is translated as commandment. The other two are precepts. So that’s really not much help to us.

But what is helpful is the definition provided, which is, “an order, command, charge, precept, injunction , that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office, a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done , a precept relating to lineage, of the Mosaic precept concerning the priesthood.” So what we might deduce is that the commandment might be understood to be a commission that was given to Timothy. It encompassed all that Timothy had been commanded to do in regards to his ministry and the governance of the churches under his care.

Now we too have been given orders, a commission, a commandment to proclaim the gospel to every living creature, to go into all the world with the gospel, to start in the realm of our family, then our neighborhood, then community, and then to the farthest reaches of the world. This is our ministry that we have all be commissioned to do. One of the other metaphors that Paul likes to use is that of the military. And he often likens the good fight of faith to being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So this commission is our orders, what we are tasked to do as the church of Jesus Christ. Our ministry is to win souls. To proclaim the truth which is able to save souls.

Notice though that Paul uses especially strong words to convey the seriousness and urgency of this commission. He says I charge you in the presence of God. That’s like the phrase we hear sometimes used: “As God is my witness!” But Paul uses this for great effect, to show the seriousness of the charge he is giving Timothy, that it is not just coming from Paul, but from God Himself. So we should have a reverance, a holy fear of God that gives us motivation to do what He has charged us to do, and there is the added assurance that Paul gives which is that God gives live to all things. So though this commission may cause us to go through danger, our lives are watched over by God, and He will preserve us as we are keeping His charge.

And to that witness of God, Paul adds the witness of Jesus, saying, “and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” Now we talked about Timothy’s confession, which resulted in his salvation and obtaining eternal life. What confession did Jesus make before Pilate? I believe it is a reference to the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus as recorded in John 18, where it says,

Vs. 33 Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say [correctly] that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

So the good confession that Jesus made is similar to the good confession that Timothy made, which is that Jesus is Lord, King of kings, that He is the Messiah that came into the world, born of man, but preexisting with God. Jesus said my kingdom is not of this realm, but I am a King, and for this I have been born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. So there is a lot that is contained in the confession that Jesus gave Pilate. But it is the truth of God which we must believe if we are to be saved. Pilate did not believe the truth. His answer was “what is truth?” He tried to find a way to not commit one way or another. But in the end, his refusal to believe in Jesus Christ, caused him to side with those who would kill Jesus.

There is no neutral position in regards to Christ. A lot of people today want to think that they can have a little bit of Christianity and be ok. That they can mix the wisdom of the world and a little bit of Christianity together and they can have the best of both worlds. They can have the world’s riches, and yet still gain heaven in eternity. But the fact is that believing in Jesus Christ as Lord is not a 50/50 position. If Jesus is Lord, then He must be King, and if He is King, then to Him be all honor and eternal dominion.

Our worship of Jesus Christ as King then means that we offer up our selves as a living sacrifice, dying to the world and the lusts of this world that have controlled us and held us captive, so that through faith in Christ we might receive forgiveness of our sins, and be credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so that we might receive new life, even everlasting life, which we now live as a citizen of the kingdom of God in submission to His will and His purpose.

That is salvation. It’s not sugar coated. It’s not if you come to Jesus all your wildest dreams will come true. Or you can live your best life now and get heaven to boot. But salvation requires full obeisance, honor and submission to Christ our King, and in exchange for renouncing our sinful life, and the passing, temporary pleasures of this world, He will give us forgiveness and HIs righteousness, and a life that is everlasting, and a crown which He will award to us on that day when He establishes His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I hope that you will lay hold of that truth, and confess Jesus as your Lord and King, that you might receive that life from God.

The honor due to elders, 1 Timothy 17-25

I assume that you are here this morning because you want to worship the Lord. Jesus said, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. He said in another place, speaking to the Father, Jesus said your word is truth.

So one of the primary ways we worship the Lord is to study His word. But according to the apostle James, we are not to be merely hearers of the word, but doers of the word. So to obey the word is worship. In the earliest mention of worship, we find that Abraham took Isaac to offer him on an altar to God, and Abraham said, the lad and I will go worship. So to sacrifice is worship. Samuel said to disobedient Saul, when he had claimed he saved the best of the animals in order to sacrifice to God, Samuel said, “to obey is better than sacrifice.”

I say all that to make the point that if you’re here this morning to worship the Lord, then one of the primary ways you do that is through hearing the preaching of the word, and then being obedient to it. And God has ordained preaching as the means by which his word is proclaimed. And to that end, God has ordained pastors to preach and teach His word.

We get this word pastor from the word in the Greek which means shepherd. And we find it used to describe the elders of the churches. For instance, in Acts 20:28 Paul is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus. He had called together the elders of the various churches and he said, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

So Paul calls together the elders, used in vs 17, and then in vs 28 calls them overseers, which is also translated as bishops, and then calls them shepherds, which is the word from which we get pastor. That shows that all those titles are synonymous, and interchangeable. It’s a mistake to make more out of one title than another, because it’s evident from just that one passage that all those titles are interchangeable. And it’s verified in other passages as well.

Now back in chapter 3, Paul laid out the qualifications for a pastor. And I don’t have time to review all of that this morning. That message is available on our website and YouTube if you want to see what he said regarding their qualifications. Today, in our ongoing study of 1 Timothy, we are looking at the section where Paul deals with how pastors are to function in the church.

And particularly, he deals with three areas in regards to the function of pastors, or elders. Those areas I have boiled down to three words, which may serve as an outline that might help us navigate through this section of scripture. The first point is compensation, secondly, accusation, and third, ordination. Now those are rather broad points, but I hope they will serve to help us as we study this letter about how the church is to be conducted.

So Paul begins with the broad concept of compensation for pastors or elders. He says in vs 17 “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

Now most commentators introduce this subject by drawing a corollary between the widows mentioned in vs 3, and the elders, both of which we are told to honor. In regards to widows, Paul said that the church was to honor them. These were women who had lost their husbands, had no family or visible means of support, and had devoted themselves to serve the Lord in the church. Now I preached a message about that last week which I don’t want to have to repeat here. But suffice it to say that to honor those widows indicated that the church was to provide for their financial needs. That was more or less a unique situation in the early church that we do not have as much call for today. That was due to the culture which had no safety net for widows who did not have someone to take them under their support. Today most people have access to government subsides and housing and food, if they don’t have insurance that takes care of their needs, and so we don’t have much call for the church to support widows.

But the point was that the church was to honor widows. Now in vs17, regarding elders of the church, he says they are to be given double honor. I used to think that indicated that a pastor was entitled to make twice what a normal person in a regular job would make. I might wish that were true, but upon further study I don’t believe that is what Paul is saying here.

Double honor is simply a way of referring back to the honor that is given to widows, which refers to compensation to meet their financial needs, and then additional honor that should be given due to the pastor’s position as the messenger of the Lord. In other words, they are to give him honor because of his position as the spokesman for the Lord. As he is faithful in preaching the word, they are to give him the honor due, to respect his word, to listen and to obey it. That obedience to the word of the Lord is what Paul is referring to when he says the elder who rules well. That’s what a shepherd is responsible for as he is shepherding the flock. He rules well according to the chief shepherd’s command, and the flock needs to respond accordingly. Ruling well doesn’t necessarily mean cracking the whip, but it does mean making sure that the flock stays on course, that they are protected from wolves, and which is spiritually healthy and maturing as they should.

Another confusing point to be clarified is the way he says, “ especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” Some have said this indicates that there must be a plurality of elders in the church, and some preach, and some merely lead. I don’t happen to agree with that view. I think that the scripture indicates all elders are to be preachers and teachers. For instance, Titus 1:7 says, “For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” So he is able to exhort sound doctrine. That is preaching.

And in 1 Tim.3:2 and 2 Timothy 2:24 we are told that an elder/overseer, pastor must be “apt to teach.” So I don’t think there is an imperative here that we are to have elders in the church who are not preachers/teachers of the word. The last thing we want in a church is someone who is merely an administrator. Who applies standard business practices to the church. The church is not a business, its not an organization. It’s an organism, a body, the body of Christ and it lives by the word of Christ, not by the best business practices, even though that may sound logical to some people.

But the main emphasis that Paul gives here is that of compensation in regards to financial compensation. That follows in line with the honor given to widows. And the same would be true of pastors. As they are devoted to the ministry of the church, the word, and to prayer, they are reliant upon the church for their financial needs. So Paul says we are to give them honor financially.

Now we know that is what he is referring to, because he includes two scriptures as illustrative of that principle. The first is a quote from Duet. 25, in which he says, “”YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING.” Paul uses a quote which was originally referring to God’s care of oxen, as a metaphor for God’s care of pastors. The ox would be tied to a millstone and would pull or push the millstone around and around which ground the grain. And God wanted the Israelites to leave the ox unmuzzled, so that he might eat from the grain he was milling in order to sustain his strength.

That’s the principle involved in the pastor’s compensation. He is to make his living from the work which he is doing. He gets his sustenance from his work. He uses that same scripture to establish that principle again in 1Cor. 9:9-11 “For it is written in the Law of Moses, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher [to thresh] in hope of sharing [the crops.] If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” And then in vs 14, Paul clarifies that principle by saying, “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”

Now here in 1 Timothy 5, Paul also quotes from Luke’s gospel chapter 10 vs 7, saying, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” That’s actually a quote from Jesus, which makes the gospel of Luke the equivalent of Old Testament scriptures. And by the way, Paul’s writings are referred to as scripture by none other than Peter, who says in 2Peter 3:15-16 “and regard the patience of our Lord [as] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” So Peter refers to Paul’s letters as scripture.

But it’s interesting that Paul uses Jesus’s words to validate the preachers labor as hard work. And it is work. And if you do it well, it is hard work to study, to spend time working through the scriptures so that you can be a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. If you buy your messages online from some pastor’s resource website, then perhaps it’s not as hard as it should be. But nevertheless, in the Lord’s view, preaching and teaching is honorable work, and they will give an account for what they have said and done.

So then Heb 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit [to them,] for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” Those that rule well by preaching and teaching give them double honor. Give them the compensation due to their position, and obey them as they are being truthful and faithful to the word of Christ. And God will hold them accountable for their work.

Now on to the next point, which is accusation. Still speaking of elders/pastors/overseers/bishops, Paul says in vs 19-20 “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful [of sinning.]”

Actually, this is still a reference to the honor that is due to pastors. There should not be allowed in the church any unsubstantiated accusations against the pastor. A pastor’s reputation can easily be besmirched by someone who has an axe to grind. So such accusations are not to be. Only when such accusations are accompanied by two or three witnesses is there to be any credence given to them. Many pastor’s have been ruined in their ministry by someone who is upset at the church for some reason, and starts to spread rumors that could not stand up in the light of day. But enough damage can be done whispering behind closed doors to ruin a pastor, and ultimately destroy the church.

So Paul sets a high bar for accusations. But in reality, Jesus set the same high standard in Matthew 18 for all church discipline. The Old Testament gave the same standard for accusations of any Israelite. I was watching something online a few days ago where they are having an inquisition regarding a certain political figure. And just when we thought it was finally over, they called another day of hearing because of what they called “new evidence.” It turns out that the new evidence was actually not eye witness evidence at all, but merely hear say. But irregardless, they got the effect that they wanted, which was to further impugn the character of that political figure. Now that may be par for the course in politics, but that is not the way the church is to operate. There must be 2 or 3 witnesses to the accuasation.

But if there are the proper witnesses, and the accusation is found to have merit, the pastor is in some sin, then Paul says, “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful [of sinning.]”. Notice that he says those who continue in sin. That’s an important principle in regards to church discipline. The goal is not to kick people out of the church that are sinning, but to rebuke them, to correct them, to instruct them in righteousness so that they might repent and do what is right. The goal is repentance and restoration. But in the case of a pastor, it is possible to become disqualified as a pastor because of your sin, even if you repent of it. I’m not sure I can easily delineate that line that cannot be crossed, but I would say that if you go back to chapter 3 and look at the qualifications that are required for a pastor, and then see if there can be sin in regards to those qualifications and yet still be qualified. For instance, if the pastor leaves his wife and runs off with another woman there is really no way that he can be qualified anymore as being a one woman man. He doesn’t qualify anymore. And it’s not a matter of whether or not the church forgives him, or even that God forgives him, but it’s a matter of him no longer being of a reputation that can be trusted in that respect and so he is disqualified.

But having said all that, Paul wants to make sure that there is no witch-hunt that is carried out by the church just because of petty disagreements or personality conflicts. So he says, vs21 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of [His] chosen angels, to maintain these [principles] without bias, doing nothing in a [spirit of] partiality.” In other words, this is not to become a political witch-hunt just because you don’t like a pastor’s personality, or you think you can find a more agreeable, personable pastor that you will like better. Such accusations are serious business and God will judge those who do so.

That leaves us the final principle that Paul discusses, which we will call ordination. Too much is made sometimes of the ordination of a pastor. I’m not saying it should not be done, but I am saying that ordination is simply the human confirmation of what God has already done. God calls and gifts a pastor. The church ordains him as a means of joining in agreement with God, and it’s signified by the laying on of hands.

But to that point, Paul says in vs22 “Do not lay hands upon anyone [too] hastily and thereby share [responsibility for] the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.” In other words, don’t gloss over the qualifications for a pastor without serious consideration. Otherwise, if you ordain them prematurely, you can end up participating in their sin. You have given them the blessing of the church, as if they have been vetted and confirmed that they are trustworthy and without reproach, when in fact they are not. And so as they continue in their sins, they end up doing much damage in the church, and you are at least partly responsible for it because you helped them obtain that platform.

It also speaks to the principle laid out in the qualifications, which is they should not be a novice. That may refer to youth, or a young age, or it may refer to a new convert. Either way, the warning is to keep yourself free from sin by not sanctioning such a person who may still be in their sins. Don’t lay hands on them too quickly. Take time to watch such a person to see if their talk matches their walk.

Now that admonition to keep himself pure leads to another remark which is personal in regards to Timothy. If you remember, one of the qualifications stressed often in regards to pastors is that they are not to be addicted to wine, or a drinker of much wine. But now Paul says especially to Timothy in vs 23, “No longer drink water [exclusively,] but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.”

One of the biggest health risks in that country at that time was dysentery. Drinking the water in some countries even today can result in what we call Montezuma’s revenge. And so this admonition to drink a little wine may have been at least partially in respect to that. But it’s also possible that Timothy had a weak stomach. I can attest to that as something that I’ve had problems with over the years. Believe it or not, I actually have a six pack under this bulge. It’s just not visible because of bloating. I’m kidding of course. I don’t have a six pack. But I do have problems with bloating. Everything seems to hurt my stomach. My wife can eat anything and not ever be bothered. I on the other hand, seem to have problems with everything.

But I’m in good company. Timothy had frequent ailments, presumably of the stomach. So the popular medicine for that in Paul’s day was a little wine. Not a lot of wine, but a little wine. And so to counter act the possible criticism that Timothy might get as a result of a pastor drinking a little wine, Paul gives him permission, or instruction to drink a little wine for his stomach and frequent ailments.

But it’s important to note that wine for Timothy was medicine for his stomach and not a beverage to catch a buzz from. Today we have a lot more effective alternatives than wine for stomach ailments. I personally would never drink wine for my stomach or for any other reason, unless I were on a desert island and had nothing else to use. But with a Walgreens on every other corner, I don’t need to take a chance on compromising my reputation, nor tempting myself to drink more than I should. I think it’s better for a pastor not to drink at all.

But drinking wine or not drinking was something that was easily ascertained when they were considering a man to ordination. Being a drinker is something that is usually not easily hidden. It’s usually pretty obvious if you watch someone for a while.

And Paul wants them to consider that in regards to a possible candidate for ordination as a pastor, some sins are more evident than others. But all sin is a problem, and a possible means of disqualification. So he says in vs 24 “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their [sins] follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed.”

I’ve quoted this verse often in the years past, especially in regards to self righteous individuals who may not have a lot of outward problems with sin and are especially critical of those who do. Some sins, like drunkenness for instance, are pretty obvious sins. They go before a man. You can see the town drunk a long ways off coming down the sidewalk and you know right away that there is a problem there. You quickly cross over to the other side of the road.

But the person who has a secret life of sin that he keeps hidden on his computer, or behind closed doors, such a person’s sins follow after. It may take time for those sins to become evident. That kind of person can escape criticism because on the surface everything looks ok. There is no immediate evidence of sin in their life. But in one way or another, either sooner or later, perhaps not until the judgment day, but one day their secret sins will become evident. Paul is giving a warning here about such people, and that is another reason to not lay hands suddenly upon anyone. Give time for their life to become evident.

In the same way, a person’s good deeds become evident over time. Anyone can put on a front for a day or two to make a good impression, but it’s another thing to live with someone for a while. That’s when the true character of someone becomes evident.

And while that is written in regards to candidates for pastors, it certainly is applicable also to any Christian. Jesus said, by their fruits you shall know them. If you have been saved, cleansed from sin, having received Christ’s righteousness, then the fruit of the Spirit will be a life that is not marked by sin, but rather by good deeds. Not a couple of good deeds here or there which are done for show, but then fade away quickly when no one’s watching anymore. But true conversion means a complete change, albeit a continual change, in which we are being conformed to the image of Christ on daily basis.

I want to urge you to ask yourself this morning if you have ever been converted. Not just trying to turn over a new leaf. Not just trying to be a better person. But recognizing your sinfulness, repenting of it, and asking the Lord to be changed, converted, delivered from sin and given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is conversion, that is salvation, and it is free and accessible to everyone who comes to Christ in faith and repentance. And only as we have been converted are we able to live a life that is righteous. I pray that if upon examination you know that you have not been converted, then today would be the day that you call upon the Lord to save you and remake you. Don’t put it off.

Kept by God, Jude 17-25

Today we are going to finish our study of Jude.  This short letter was written by Jude who was the brother of James.  What he does not mention is that he is also the half brother of Jesus Christ.  They had the same mother -Mary, but different fathers, Joseph being the father of James and Jude, and the Holy Spirit being the father of Jesus.

Jude wrote this letter to the churches, having first desired to elaborate on their common salvation, but he was urged by the Holy Spirit to write something else instead – a warning that certain ungodly persons had crept into the church unawares, and their false doctrine was a stumbling block to these true believers to whom he was writing.   He says in vs 1 that he writes then to “those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.” 

In other words, the true believer is called by God with an effectual call to salvation, he is loved by God to the extent that God provided the way of salvation, and he is kept for Jesus Christ in the sense that they have been brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  That idea of being kept by God is an important concept in this letter. He restates it again at the conclusion of this letter in vs 24, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.”  What that speaks of is salvation is from God. Both the beginning, the present and the future aspects of our salvation is from God.  

As Paul says in Rom. 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  In salvation, there are three stages, justification, sanctification, and glorification.  All three stages are necessary.

And that second stage, sanctification, in particular is the concern of Jude’s letter.  Because as he says in vs 4, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Because of their false testimony, these certain persons were in danger of depriving the church of their prize by abusing the grace of God in saying that you could live ungodly lives and still be acceptable to God.  That you could disregard the aspect of our salvation which is sanctification, which is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, to be holy, even as He is holy, to live righteous, godly lives.

Make no mistake, to live godly lives in the midst of an ungodly world is our mandate as Christians.  To confess Jesus as Lord, to live for Him, to do His will. Grace isn’t a license to sin, but a mandate to live holy lives.  As Paul says in Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,  instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,  looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

Do you see in that passage how the three aspects of salvation are expressed? Salvation is by grace, our justification is by grace, but that very grace instructs us to live godly lives, which is sanctification.  And then looking for the blessed hope of the appearing of Jesus Christ is our glorification, when we are raised up to meet the Lord to live with Him forever in a new glorified body.

But Jude’s warning in this letter is that these certain ungodly persons were putting a stumbling block before the church, encouraging them to live ungodly lives, to deny the lordship of Jesus Christ, that we don’t have to live godly lives to be a Christian.  And what that meant was that the sanctification of the saint was in jeopardy, and even the salvation of those who were seeking to enter the kingdom of God was being prevented.  

As Jesus Himself said of the false teachers of His day, in Matt. 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” They were a stumbling block which caused those who were entering to fall, and those who were seeking to enter to not find it.

So Jude gave several examples from biblical history of false teachers and pretenders whom God judged and brought condemnation upon because they were living ungodly lives and putting a stumbling block before others. We are not going to review all of them, but I encourage you to review that section for yourself.  Because as Jude tells us here, it’s important to remember.  Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat it. If we are wise we will learn from these historical examples that Jude gives us in the middle section of this letter. Rom. 15:4 “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Now as we enter into this last section of the letter, Jude reminds us again to remember. He says in vs17 “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 

The apostles had echoed the warnings of Jesus Himself, warning that in the last days that  false teachers would arise from within the ranks of the church to lead people astray. Paul, for example, said in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,  and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Peter warned about the same in 2Peter 2:1-2 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.  Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.” 

So Jude reminds us that the apostles had warned about these false teachers who mocked the imperatives of the gospel, and now he gives one last summary description of these certain persons so that the church might recognize them.  He says in vs 19 “These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.”  What does he mean by they cause divisions?  I think he might be referring to the same sort of people that Paul spoke of in “1Cor. 1:12 “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” In other words, they cherry pick from the teachers of the gospel to serve their own desires.  Even worse, they accumulate certain teachers that tickle their ears as Paul had said in 2 Timothy 4 which we read awhile a go.

Paul had told Timothy in 2Tim. 2:15  to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” But these men do not rightly divide the word of truth, but they give preference to one scripture above the others for the sake of giving license to their ungodly desires.

Secondly, he says they are worldly minded.  The Greek word there means natural.  They are not interested in spiritual things, but are all consumed with the natural man. Instead of being focused on the spiritual things of God, they are fixated on the flesh, on the natural world, the things which appeal to the flesh. How to live your best life now.  How to get God to do whatever you want Him to do.  How to have health, wealth and prosperity in this life. Name it and claim it. These are people whose minds are set on things of this world, worldly minded.

And lastly, he says they are devoid of the Spirit.  That simply means that they are not even saved. Rom 8:9 says “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  Jude is not criticizing the fact that they work in the flesh and not by the Spirit.  Thats a possibility as a Christian, as Paul warned the Galatians.  But that’s not the case with these certain persons.  He says they are devoid of the Spirit. They are not really Christians.  They are pretenders who claim to be spirit filled, but in fact are operating under the influence of evil spirits who have maligned the truth, and seek to destroy the faith.

So we know who these certain people are who have crept into the church unnoticed.  We know how to recognize them.  But we were told by Jude that we are to contend for the faith.  How do we do that? How do we resist the damning influence that these certain people have on the church?  How do we avoid the stumbling blocks that they put in the way?

Jude answers those questions by giving us four injunctions starting in vs 20; “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”  

The first thing we do when we contend for the faith in response to the false teaching of these certain persons, is we edify our own faith.  To edify is to build up, to instruct, to teach, to improve.  We edify our own faith.  Notice Jude describes it as your most holy faith.  This is building up a holy faith.  Holiness is the process of sanctification.  It is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  It is living according to the Spirit and not according to the desires of the flesh. 

You do that by keeping the commands of God, by keeping the ordinances of God. As Peter quoted God as saying, “you shall be holy for I am holy.” To be holy is to be the opposite of natural, as fleshly.  It’s patterning your life after Christ.  Peter spoke of that as walking in the footsteps of Christ. 1Peter 2:21-22 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,  WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH.” 

Jude says build up your faith first.  A good analogy of that principle is when you are traveling in an airplane, they give you these directions about how to put on an oxygen mask in the event that the plane loses oxygen.  And they always say, put your own mask on first before helping others to put on theirs.  The point being that if you are unconscious, you won’t be able to help others.  So in regards to contending for the faith, make sure to build up your own faith first, founded on sound doctrine and practice, and then you will be able to instruct others.

To build up your faith then is to exercise your faith.  Live by faith and not by sight. Walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  Secondly Jude says we are to pray in the Holy Spirit.  I”m sorry to have to offend any charismatics out there, but this is not talking about speaking in tongues in some sort of prayer language.  It simply means praying according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Praying in the Holy Spirit means  praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, in alignment with the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the will of God.  We need to pray scripture, we need to pray God’s promises which He has given us in scripture.  We need to pray according to the will of God, not our will, and that is how we pray in the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 8:26-27 says, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words;  and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God.”  Notice something very important – the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God.  That’s the secret to successful prayer, praying in the will of God.  Not praying some magic incantation which gets God to do our will, but when we pray in the will of God and we can know that we have the things which we ask of.

One of the famous texts that we often turn to in regards to prayer is found in James 5:16.  It says, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”

Let me try to explain some things about this passage that are often not fully appreciated.  First of all, Elijah did not decide on his own after it did not rain for three years, and then he prayed that it would rain and God answered his prayer.  No, actually, in 1 Kings 18 we have record of God telling Elijah that He was going to send rain on the earth again.  Elijah then in the strength of that promise went back to Ahab and then prayed three times that it would rain.  And since it was God’s will that it would rain, and since God said it was going to rain, it did rain.  But Elijah prayed three times before God sent the rain He had already promised He would send.  That’s called praying in the will of God.

Another important aspect of prayer that is taught in that passage speaks to the earlier principle Jude gave about building up your own holy faith first.  And that is that James says, the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.  When you pray in the will of God, and when you are right with God, built up in your holy faith, when you are living righteously, then that makes your prayer effective with God.

And the object of our prayer is to contend for the faith.  We pray for one another.  We pray for the pastor.  We pray for the church. We pray for our unsaved loved ones. If we are called to fight for the faith, we can be certain that a great part of the battle will be won on our knees. 

Another injunction Jude gives us is to keep ourselves in the love of God.  That means we love the things that God loves, and we hate the things that God hates.  We need to have a holy hatred for sin.  I’m sorry to have to say this, but as Christians I’m afraid we love sin, and hate to have to go without it. Sin is like a forbidden love affair that we keep giving in to. We may try to avoid it, but we still love it.  We miss it so much, and consequently we struggle with those sins over and over.  The reason is that we have not learned to hate the sin. To have a holy horror of sin because we recognize that it’s an affront to God. We don’t recognize that sin brings death.  If we love God, then we will hate sin because we hate that it is an affront to God.  Sin insults God. Sin offends God.  And so if we love Him, we will hate sin.  I didn’t say hate the sinner, but we hate sin.

The next thing Jude tells us we must do in our fight for the faith, is “waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” I think that means that we wait anxiously for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Having a heavenly hope is the key to living a godly life here on earth.  The opposite of a heavenly hope is to mount up treasure on earth. It’s to live for what this world has to offer.  It’s living for the moment, rather than for eternity.  It’s living for the flesh, rather than living by the Spirit. We need to live in expectation of Christ’s imminent return.

We need to get our perspective up above the horizon of this world.  Like the faithful of old who are spoken of in Hebrews 11, they were looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

So those are things that Jude says we need to be concerned about in regards to our own selves.  But we don’t stop there.  We need to love our neighbor as ourselves.  So how do we do that? Especially those that may have stumbled over the stumbling blocks that these certain persons have put in their path?

Jude tells us how we are to help them in vs22 “And have mercy on some, who are doubting;  save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

Have mercy on some who are doubting, that speaks of those who have listened to the false teaching and now doubt the truth of the gospel.  So speaking the truth in love might be to rebuke them in their sin. To correct their false doctrine.  Jude says save others, snatching them out of the fire.  These would be to present the gospel to those who are not yet saved.  In effect, snatch them from hell.  Do every thing you can to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  You know, I”m sure there are many, many people here today that would rush into a burning house to save your loved one.  We may not be trained firefighters, but if we saw our loved ones in a situation that could mean death, most of us would run and jump into the burning house, if we thought there was any possible chance we could save them.

And yet, many of us are guilty of watching our loved ones drift steadily towards certain death, knowing full well that the Bible says that those who die without Christ will be cast into the Lake of Fire to suffer torment eternally.  That’s a reality though that we have somehow convinced ourselves to not think too seriously about.  But if we really believe what the Bible says, then we would have mercy and snatch them out of the fire.  

I think that’s what he means when he says, “On some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”  If we hate sin, if we have a horror for sin, then we will show mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.  Sometimes the sin is something that we fear to come close to, because we recognize how dangerous it is.  And so we hate every vestige of it. We fear for their soul.

But the good news is that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  God is able to cleanse us from the stain of sin, so that we may live in righteousness.  Salvation offers us forgiveness from the penalty of sin, deliverance from the power of sin, and one day eradication of the presence of sin.  Right now, we should be living in the power over sin.  Sin no longer has dominion over us.

Our job, if we really love our neighbor as ourselves, is to go to those who need to hear the gospel and compel them to come into the kingdom of God. But thankfully, it’s not all up to us. Jude closes this message with what may be the best benediction in the entire Bible.  In this benediction he states what God will do.  And that is where we find the power to win the battle for the faith.  That’s where we find the victory. 

Notice he says, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…”  What a great blessing that is, to realize that though Jude told us we are to keep building up our faith, we are to keep ourselves in the love of God, yet we find it’s the Lord who is keeping us, who is keeping us from stumbling, who is able to make you stand in His presence blameless, with great joy.  That’s tremendous, it really is.  It’s not dependent on the man who who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

It’s like I always told my kids to hold daddy’s hand when crossing the road.  I wanted them to hold my hand tight.  I wanted them to walk right beside me.  But I was not depending on their strength to hold on to me.  I knew that I would never let them go.  I was going to hold onto them.  And our God keeps us.  He is the Great Shepherd and we are the sheep of His pasture, if we truly know the Lord as our Savior.

Jude concludes his benediction by saying, “to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”   We do not give glory, majesty, dominion and authority to God.  He already possesses those things.  We just acknowledge that they belong to Him. We bow to HIs authority, we bow to His dominion, to His majesty, to His glory.  And we bow not just in eternity, but we bow now.  Before all time, now and forever.  Let us be sure that we recognize and bow before the sovereignty of God now, in this life.  Jesus is Lord, now… and forever. Amen.

God’s judgment on false teachers, Jude 11-16

We begin this section of scripture with Jude uttering the phrase, “Woe to them!”  It is a phrase that cannot be understood without the context of what came before it.  And so if we have not been here in the last couple of weeks, we must find out who is “them”.  Who is Jude talking about. 

We find the summary answer to that question back in vs 4, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  

These certain, ungodly persons are the ones to whom Jude now exclaims, “Woe to them!” I believe Jude uses that phrase to remind us of when Jesus gave a scathing indictment on the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23.  Jesus there proclaims 8 woes upon the scribes and Pharisees, because He said they shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for they do not enter in themselves, nor do they allow those who are entering to go in.  He gave eight such woes about these false teachers, blind guides He calls them, who devour widow’s houses, who pretentiously make long prayers, who go to great lengths to make disciples for themselves, who clean the outside of the cup so people think they are so righteous, yet inwardly they are full of corruption and uncleanness.

It’s the same sort of people that Jude calls certain persons. But Jude then shows that God will punish these certain persons, just as certainly as He punished rebellious Israel, as He cast into hell the rebellious angels, and as He destroyed by fire and brimstone the immoral Sodom and Gomorrah, as he reminded us of last week in our study.

But Jude is not done condemning them. You know the scriptures give their most severe criticism of false prophets.  They are guilty of a greater sin than that of murderers and adulterers and sorcerers. To change the truth of God for a lie and in so doing put a stumbling block before others is the greatest crime, worthy of the most severe punishment. And so he proclaims “Woe to them!” “For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.”

Jude gives us three illustrations of people like these certain person, that abandoned the word of God, rebelled against the word of God, and in due time received the judgement from God. And in this reminder of these people’s sin of rebellion, we get insight into the nature of these apostates in the church.  Jude said in vs 4, that these certain persons had crept into the church, and their teachings had perverted the grace of God into licentiousness, and they denied the lordship of Jesus Christ, so that they were condemned to judgement.

Let’s look at the first illustration, that of Cain.  We find the story of Cain in Genesis chapter 4.  I won’t take the time to read it all, but I will try to summarize it.  Gen 4:3-5 “So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;  but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.”  

Well, I’m sure you remember the rest of the story.  Cain was angry at God for rejecting his offering, and he took out his anger on his brother and murdered him while they were working in the field. But what shouldn’t be overlooked in the story is this: Cain brought an unacceptable sacrifice. God did not accept his sacrifice, and God did accept the sacrifice of Abel. Now this presupposes that they knew what offering they were to bring. God required a blood sacrifice. But Cain didn’t think that was necessary.  He was a farmer, not a herdsman.  It would have been an extra expense to buy a lamb for the offering.  And so he rejected the word of God and offered what he thought should be acceptable. He would worship God according to his design.

And that provokes me to say something more about this idea of false worship.  The idea of worship as we understand it today in the modern church, is a relatively new phenomenon.  I grew up in the church, and had exposure to dozens and dozens of churches in my early life, and I can tell you that prior to the 90’s this idea of “worship” as it is expressed to today was not heard of.  We went to church, we sang songs, we had special music, we had preaching, all the components of what might be called worship, but we didn’t necessarily call it worship with the same understanding as it has today.  

Today, if you hear the word worship, you automatically think it is speaking of a prolonged time of music, usually conducted by a “worship team” or a praise and worship band.  The idea of worship today is virtually only concerned with music, and it’s usually contemporary music.  If you sing a classic hymn as a congregation such as we do on Sundays, that really isn’t what people think of as proper worship.  Worship has to be a time when you give yourself over to a emotional, repetitive, sentimental and moving musical score performed by more or less trained or professional musicians and singers in a concert style setting.  We somehow have come to believe that such is pleasing to God, that is worshipping God, and as such it satisfies our responsibility to God.

That, however, is not what the Bible calls worship. Jesus said in Matt 15:8 “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.” A good principle of hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) which I think is under utilized, is when you are considering a word or principle in the Bible, to find the first time it is mentioned, and in so doing you will gain a better understanding of the meaning of the word, or of the principle.  It’s called the principle of first mention.  

Now if you go to the first place that the word “worship”  is mentioned, you will find it in Genesis 22:5.  Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  What Abraham was talking about when he said worship is really insightful as we consider what is commonly considered worship today.  He was talking about going up on the mountain to offer up his son as an offering to God.  He was going to sacrifice his son to God. And he called that worship.

I would love to spend the rest of our time talking about this.  But I don’t have the time this morning.  However, please be sure that you understand that worship, in the Biblical context, involves a sacrifice. Worship is an offering, a sacrifice to God.  Additionally, worship is obedience to God.  Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice in obedience to what God required of him.

And that reveals that though the word worship is not used in the account of Cain and Abel, yet that is what they were doing.  They were coming to worship God.  Genesis 4 tells us that they came to make an offering to God. And very importantly, notice that God did not accept Cain’s offering, but He accepted Abel’s.  That tells us something important; that God is not obligated to accept just any kind of worship we offer Him.

But as Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  Obedience to the truth then is essential to worshipping God.  Romans 12 tells us that in chapter 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” So part of worship is obedience to the will of God, the commandments of God, that our bodies may be in subjection to Him.  To be a living sacrifice is to die to the desires of the flesh, that we might live in the Spirit.

Cain showed that he did not believe God’s word. He offered his own offering to God as he thought was fitting.  And he became angry at God and killed his brother. His rebellion against God’s word killed his brother. He killed Able because he didn’t believe God’s word was true.  He didn’t fear judgment. But God did judge Cain.  He made him to be a fugitive and wanderer on earth.

These certain persons Jude is speaking of were like Cain in the sense that they did what they wanted with God’s word.  They turned it around and used it for their purposes, and for their advantage.  They thought it was acceptable to alter God’s word for their own benefit and in so doing, condemned not only themselves, but those who listened to them.

The next illustration Jude calls from Biblical history is that of Balaam.  This illustration answers the question as to why the false teachers do what they do. The story of Balaam illustrates is that they do it for money. He was a prophet for hire. And some of these false prophets we see on the Christian television networks are in effect prophets for hire, and they are getting very wealthy taking money from people who are duped by their charisma and their false promises.

The story of Balaam is found in Numbers chapters 22-25, and then again in ch.31. The story of Balaam is a story of how he turned against Israel, and tried to curse them for the sake of the reward from the king of Moab, a man named Balak. You might remember this story because there is the famous passage there which describes Balaam’s donkey speaking to Balaam because Balaam kept trying to force the donkey to go forward, when the angel of the Lord was blocking his way.  God put several blocks to stop Balaam from cursing Israel.  But in the end, Balaam found a way to work around God’s blockade.  

We find a summary of what he did in Revelation 2:14, in which the Lord says to the church at Pergamos,  “I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit acts of immorality.”  Balaam knew in getting the Israelites to commit fornication with the Moabites, and forsake God’s law concerning their diet, God would end up bringing judgment upon them, and accomplish what the king of Moab really wanted, which was the destruction of Israel. But what Balaam forgot to take into consideration, is that the same God who would judge Israel for their sin, would also judge him for his act of rebellion against the word of God. Numbers 31 tells us that Balaam was killed by the Lord’s army while he was living in the midst of a godless and sinful city in Moab.

Balaam then represents two things: the covetousness of the false teacher who loves money and the apostate who influences others to sin. The third illustration of apostate false teachers in the church is from the story of the rebellion of Korah. Korah was a Levite who led the rebellion against Moses.  He was a teacher.  But his error was his disdain for the authority which God had prescribed.  He wanted to be a priest, and to have authority over the people of God, but he could not.  

In Numbers chapter 16 we find the story of his rebellion. He gathered together other certain men, and went before Moses and assembled together before him. And he said, “You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

Korah took the word of God about the priesthood of all believers, and reinterpreted them in such a way as to remove any authority of the leadership that God had set over Israel. He was disputing the idea that they even needed a leader, that they even needed someone who was responsible, someone who spoke for God. He was disputing the idea that they even needed a teacher who gave them God’s truth. 

What he was advocating was that everyone was capable of determining God’s truth for themselves. That God could speak to them directly, and they didn’t need someone who would be in authority as their teacher/leader.  That is still a popular belief today.  Some people think they don’t need to go to church, they don’t need to listen to a preacher, they can worship God by ourselves, and they can hear from God ourselves, and they can interpret His word to suit us. Well, do you remember how the judgement of God fell upon Korah?  Numbers tells us that the ground opened up and swallowed him and his company whole into hell.

At this point in the text, Jude shifts gears.  He has shown from God’s word three separate incidents which illustrate how God’s judgment will fall upon any false teacher that rebells against God’s word, that loves money, or that is immoral, of desires authority that God hasn’t given him. A horrifying judgment awaits anyone who undermines the authority and truth of God’s word for personal gain and puts a stumbling block before others.

And so Jude shifts at this point in his sermon from historical illustrations of that fact, to five analogies from nature which describe these apostate teachers.  He describes them in lyrical form in vs 12 and 13.  “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;  wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

Let’s look at them briefly.  The first analogy is they are like hidden reefs in your love feasts.  Love feasts were not the Lord’s supper, but they were a meal that the church body would take together during their services at certain times.  Sort of like a potluck dinner, maybe.  There is something about eating a meal together that brings about a deeper fellowship with one another. And the early church used to practice it often.

Hidden reefs is a reference to a very dangerous situation when sailing.  It refers to unseen rock formations just under the surface which can rip open the hull of the boat and sink it. These certain men were like hidden reefs, unseen on the surface of the church gathering, but very dangerous because their false theology can sink a church.  It can cause people to shipwreck in their faith.

Notice Jude says they feast with you without fear, they have no fear of God, they are brazen in their sin, even flaunting it before the church, all while claiming to be covered by grace.  And it says also, “- caring for themselves.” That’s the exact opposite of loving one another.  It’s self love, a selfish love.  Immorality is selfish love.  It’s taking for yourself without really caring about the other person.

Secondly, he calls them clouds without water. Verse 12, they are “Clouds without water, carried along by winds.” Clouds bring the promise of rain to a thirsty land, and Israel has an arid climate.  So a cloud that doesn’t rain is a picture of empty promises.  Our faith is founded on the promises of God. But if you are given a false promise, that means that it may sound good to you, it may sound enticing, but it’s not a promise that God will honor because it doesn’t come from him – it comes from these imposters. To give false promises is dishonoring to God, and causes men who believe them to lose faith in God.

And thirdly he says these apostates are “like autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, and uprooted.” Autumn is season when you harvest the fruit.  But Jude says these trees have no fruit. I find it interesting that so many false teachers want to emphasize the gifts of the Spirit, but they show little of the fruits of the Spirit.  Jude says they are doubly dead, uprooted.  Dead in the sense that they are without fruit and dead in that they are not rooted in the truth.  Our faith is rooted in the word of God.  When you take that away, you are spiritually dead.

And then, fourthly, he calls them “wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam.”  I can’t help but think of Eph 4:14 “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  

I think the winds of false doctrine cause these people to be driven this way and that way, to be thrown about by the devil’s deceit which instead of growing spiritually, causes them to indulge in shameful acts.  They are being driven by evil spirits to live unruly, ungodly lives.  As a surfer, I have learned that the wind is what causes waves.  But it takes consistent winds blowing over a long fetch to produce clean waves that we can actually surf.  Those waves travel hundreds of miles to reach the shore in long, clean, orderly lines.  But a northeast wind produces a short, choppy wave that doesn’t break consistently, it produces a washing machine affect that is impossible to surf, and it churns up  a lot of sea foam that washes up on the beach, which is usually pretty nasty stuff. I can imagine that this northeaster effect is what Jude is referring to, waves that have no pattern, that aren’t consistent, that aren’t orderly, and are unproductive.  That’s an analogy of false teaching that is all over the place theologically, does not have any depth to it, and doesn’t produce sound doctrine, but instead lustful, shameful living.

And then a final picture of apostate teachers is in verse 13. They are like “wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”  Most commentators think that this reference to wandering stars is speaking of falling stars, or shooting stars.  They are not part of any constellation, and actually, are not stars at all, but asteroids that blaze across the sky and then fizzle out. And that may be what Jude is talking about. 

But I happen to think that this may be a reference to fallen angels.  Angels are often related to stars in the Bible. In Job we read that God asked Satan where he had come from.  And Satan answered, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”  To me, that sounds a lot like wandering around.  The fallen angels lost their place in heaven, they lost the position that they were designed for, and they lost their relationship with God.  And as a result of their disobedience, they are destined for the Lake of Fire.  It’s interesting that hell is described in the Bible as a place of fire, and yet a place of thick darkness at the same time.

So I think that as John said, we must test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  These false prophets are going to suffer the same fate as the evil spirits who drive them, who inform them, and who empower them.  Even now they are out of their proper place, they have lost their relationship with God, they have rebelled against the authority of God, and they work against the kingdom of God.

Jude gives one final illustration, and with this we will conclude our sermon today. He says in vs 14,” [It was] also about these men [that] Enoch, [in] the seventh [generation] from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 

Theologians tell us that the quotation here is not a biblical quotation, but from a text called 1 Enoch.  Jude was possibly referring to a book that was known to the church, but was not a part of the biblical canon, in order to provide an illustration.  The character is Enoch, whom we know from the scripture which reads.  “Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.” That’s about all we know of Enoch.  But I’m not so sure that Jude quotes from this other book or not, but I am sure that the Holy Spirit inspired him to write this quote from Enoch.  So I lean towards the Holy Spirit being the source of this quote, and not this historical book of Enoch which contains some truth and some fanciful information, and which was not accepted as a part of our Bible.  

So using this quote of Enoch, Jude wants us to see that God executes judgement against the ungodly.  No less than four times Enoch says “ungodly.”  The people are ungodly, their behavior is ungodly, and their ungodliness is carried out in ungodly ways. Most importantly, the ungodly have spoken against God.  They counter God’s word.  They defy God’s word. And as such the Lord will execute judgement against them.  But in bringing up Enoch, we are also given a positive example of a godly man living in an ungodly world.  It is possible to live a godly life in an ungodly world. And as we see in the case of the life of Enoch,  God will reward that behavior as certainly as He will judge ungodly behavior. 

Jude concludes this section with a short summary which tells us how to recognize the difference between the true teachers like Enoch, and the false teachers who are destined for destruction. He says, “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their [own] lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of [gaining an] advantage.”  That’s a pretty succinct description of false teachers.  They find fault with God’s word,  they are obsessed with the lusts of the flesh, sexual and otherwise, and the speak arrogantly, claiming to know the truth, claiming to have special insight from God that counters what God has already spoken, and finally they flatter people for the sake of gaining advantage, whether that be by money or popularity, or fame. They are prophets for hire, tickling the ears of their listeners to draw people after them.

Well, this is not a pleasant subject to have to consider this morning.  But it is the urgent message of the Holy Spirit, that we need to contend for the faith which is under attack from these apostate, false prophets who have crept into the church unawares.  By the examples given here, we ought to be able to expose those false prophets, and help ourselves and others to be more discerning, that we might be able to be sure we are of the truth, and that we worship God in truth. We must contend for the truth, so that the gospel is not watered down as to be ineffective, and people are not saved, and end up being deceived.  We can be sure that God will bring those false prophets to judgment in the last day.  But in this present hour, let us be discerning, able to distinguish between truth and error, and contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Jude 1:24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,  to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.  

Three levels of spiritual maturity, 1 John 2: 12-14

The apostle John has been showing in this epistle the contrast between those who live in sin, and those who are righteous.  He has been showing a contrast between those who walk in the light, and those who walk in darkness.  He has been showing a contrast between those who keep the commandments, and those who do not keep the commandments.  And the basic difference between these two types of people is that one is saved, and the other is unsaved.  Those that are unsaved may claim they are saved, they may claim that they know God, but they show by their deeds that they do not.  But in contrast, those that are truly saved show by their walk, by their life, that they are saved, that they do have fellowship with God.  

Now last week I spent a lot of time going back to the prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, which prophesied that in the new covenant, God would do a new thing, which is He would forgive their sins, give them a new spirit, and also give them the Holy Spirit.  That transaction speaks of being born again, to be born spiritually. And only when a person is born again will they have the power to keep God’s commandments.  That’s what the Old Testament prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah tell us will happen when a person is born again.  Let me just read one of those passages, for the sake of those who may not have been here last week when we talked about this.  

Ezekiel 36:25 says,  “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  That’s talking about being born again spiritually, and then in the power of the Spirit having the strength to keep the ordinances of God.  That’s the only way we can keep the ordinances of God.  We cannot do it in the natural man, but only as we are reborn spiritually.

Now in the passage we are looking at today, John speaks directly to those who have been born again, to those who are saved.  And he divides those who have been born again, or who have been saved, into three categories.  He says I write to you little children, I write to you fathers, and I write to you young men.  These are three categories that John divides all Christians into.

So the question then is what do these three terms mean?  And the answer would seem to be  that John is speaking of levels of maturity.  It is a common teaching in the New Testament that there are levels of spiritual maturity in our Christian life, and we are encouraged and expected to grow into maturity.  Being born again is the beginning of our spiritual life, but we are not expected to stay infants, but to grow into the full stature of Christ.

For instance, Paul says in Ephesians Eph. 4:12-13 that the pastor/teachers in the church are given for “the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;  until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

So spiritual growth is the evidence of spiritual life.  God, who gave us spiritual life in Christ, intends for that life to grow, intends for that life to grow into maturity.  And maturity is evidenced in that we look more and more like Christ, we act like Christ, we are conformed to the image of Christ in our life.  Romans 8:29 tells us, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

Now that’s what John told us a few verses back in 1 John 2:6, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” So the goal of our salvation, the goal of being born again, is to live like Christ, to become like Christ. And that process of becoming like Christ is what it means to come to spiritual maturity. 

And the means of that spiritual growth is the Scripture. First Peter 2:2 says, “Desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow by it.” Just as a baby needs milk in order to grow, you desire the milk of the Word which is your food so that you also can grow. Spiritual growth is another way to describe what we call sanctification.

So sanctification is the process of becoming like Christ.  It’s the second stage of our salvation.  The first stage of our salvation is justification, when we are justified, our sins forgiven and we are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Justification is immediate, we are born again as children of God. The second stage of our salvation is sanctification, where we become conformed to the image of Christ. Sanctification is progressive.  It’s the process of growth, of maturity.  And then the final stage of our salvation is glorification, when Christ returns and there is no more sin, no more Satan, and the flesh and the earth are remade in sinless perfection. But we that are saved are living in the middle stage, the process of sanctification, becoming conformed to Jesus Christ.

And it is to this middle stage, that John is writing to in this passage. He addresses three stages of maturity, or three stages of sanctification. Spiritual growth is facilitated much the same way that you grow physically.  It is affected by what you eat, by exercise and by learning. And as Christians we spiritually are fed by the Word of God.  We exercise by doing the will of God.  And we learn by practicing the truth. And in this way we grow, we mature.

So John addresses first of all what he calls little children.  The word that he uses includes infants up to young children.  It’s a term of endearment, but it’s also a term that indicates spiritual immaturity.  Now that is not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s normal in new birth for a child to remain an infant for a time, and then a toddler and so on.  And as Christians, there was a time when we were all infants spiritually speaking.  We were new born. And there are characteristics of that stage that are appropriate to a new born child of God.  

So he starts with a general statement in verse 12. “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”  This term includes all those who have come to new birth through faith in Jesus Christ. Your sins are forgiven.  That’s the major distinction that we all share at the early stage of our development.  So when he says “little children” in verse 12, he’s talking about all believers – he uses the word teknia. Now, that word simply means “born ones.” Those that have been born again.  They may not have gotten much beyond that stage, but they are forgiven.  They have been made children of God.  They have new life in Christ.

John spoke of that in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  That’s the beginning of our new life. Forgiven of the penalty of sin. Christ paid our penalty through His death on the cross so that we are forgiven.  And being forgiven, through faith in what He has done for us, we are given a new heart, a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. 

John says we are forgiven not because of what we have done, but for His name’s sake.  That means we are forgiven on the basis of what Christ did for us.  Not by our works of righteousness, but for His name’s sake.  God looked at what Jesus did for us as our substitute, and forgave us our sins, and gave us Christ’s righteousness.  And in that transaction, we are born again. That forgiveness and imputed righteousness is the first stage of our maturity, the first stage of new life, the first stage of sanctification, of becoming like Christ.

The second category of our spiritual growth that John writes about is that of fathers.  It’s odd that he goes from babies to fathers, and then comes back to young men.  But nevertheless, we will follow his pattern.  I suppose that John skips from babies to fathers because fathers is the goal of our maturity.  You know, there is an obsession in our culture with being young, or trying to stay young.  Just the other morning I was thinking about someone I knew in the 70’s when I was growing up, and I tried to imagine what they must be like now that they are old, like me.  I still remember them as they looked then.  And I felt a sadness for the passing of youth.  The years fly by.  But we try so hard to hold onto our youth.  And as a society we seem to idolize youth. But youth is transitory.  The Bible doesn’t idolize youth.  It encourages growing up. The goal is maturity.

So John says in vs 13, “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.” Fathers is the most mature level of our sanctification here on earth.  What John is saying is that these Christians have come to know Christ in a very intimate way.  Not just knowing Christ in a superficial way, or even just a theological way.  But in a way that is only gained by living and following someone daily, day after day, year after year. Having close communion and intimacy with Christ on a personal level.

You know the Bible speaks of the church as the bride of Christ. The person that knows me better than anyone in the world is my wife.  She has spent over 30 years with me now.  She has walked with me through almost every type of storm and trial, as well as we have experienced many periods of happiness and joy. She knows me better than my children or my parents, because she has been with me for so many years now.

That’s the relationship that John speaks to here in this word to fathers, that they know Him. In the original Greek it’s ginosko, which means of course to know, to understand,  but can also speak of the intimacy between a husband and wife. I think the title of father is also significant. Notice he doesn’t address just old men, but fathers.  The only way to be a father is to have a child. So I think there is included in this maturity of fathers a necessity to reproduce spiritual life. To bring others to the Lord is a mark of maturity.

Back in vs 3, John said this about knowing Christ; “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” That reveals that to know God means that we keep His commandments. That is a higher degree of maturity, that you have learned to keep His commandments.  We get the change of heart at new birth which means that we have a desire to keep His commandments, but actually coming to a point where we do so, is a means of practice, of discipline, and of love. Jesus said if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  Keeping the commandments is a mark of maturity that comes as a result of a life devoted to Him, to following Him, walking with Him.

The third category of maturity that John addresses is young men.  Vs13, “I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.”  Young men speaks of the middle stage of our sanctification.  You are no longer a child, yet you have not reached the level of maturity of the fathers.  But there is a progressive maturity that is indicative of these young men. 

And I believe that that maturity is defined at this stage by overcoming temptation. When we are born again, we are given a new spirit.  But the flesh is still there, and it’s the same old body, still prone to the same lusts of the flesh. The devil is called in scripture the tempter. Temptation is particularly the bane of the young Christian in whom is a battle between the flesh and the spirit. But the Bible says in 1Cor. 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

How do young Christians overcome temptation?  Through the power of the Spirit.  Through walking close to the Lord.  Through reading His word. Through prayer.  The point is that there are given to us the means by which to overcome temptation.  And one major means is by recognizing that the devil is the deceiver, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  And so what he is tempting you with is a lie.  The forbidden fruit will not make you smarter, it will not make you happier, it will in fact destroy you. Recognizing the devil is a liar and recognizing the lie in temptation is the key to overcoming the evil one.

Now at the end of vs 13, we see John start to repeat himself. As I get older, I’ve been accused by my family of repeating myself.  I guess I don’t always remember having told a certain story.  But sometimes, I don’t care if I have told it before, I think it bears repeating.  Well, John is about 90 years old by this point.  But I think he deliberately repeats himself.  He repeats these three statements, but with a different emphasis. And I think he does it deliberately, strategically, not only for emphasis, but as an aid to learning.  We learn by repetition, don’t we?  We memorize by repetition.  We learn to play an instrument by repetition.  Repetition is the key to learning, and learning is one of the means of sanctification.

So he speaks again to children at the end of vs 13. “I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”  Notice that in the first address, John uses present tense.  And in the second address, he uses past tense. I am writing to you, I have written to you. I’m not sure what that means.  It may refer to the earlier writing which John authored which is his gospel of John.  But I don’t think we can say conclusively.  One commentator suggested that John took a coffee break in his writing and when he came back he now used the past tense.  I don’t think that is very likely.  My thinking is that the change from present tense to past tense conveys a progression in time, which is consistent with what we know about sanctification, it’s a progression in maturity in your spiritual life that changes with time.

But notice the change in how he addresses the children. In the NASB the word “little” is missing. It’s now just children.  John has changed the original Greek word translated as children.  In the first address it was teknion, in  the second address it is paidion.  Teknion is little children, infants, babes in Christ, paidon is a young child that is of teachable age.  Teachers were called paidagogos, responsible for the instruction of little ones.  And so we see even there indicated the progressive nature of sanctification.  They have matured past the infant stage to the toddler stage. That’s significant.  We aren’t intended to stay in the infant stage but are to be trained in righteousness, trained by the Spirit of God.

And John says of these children, that they know the Father.  Now notice the difference between the father’s knowing Christ, and the children knowing the Father.  It’s normal isn’t it, for a young child to know his daddy?  To recognize him?  It should be normal to see a child’s face light up when daddy comes home and run out the front door to meet him and give him a hug? 

I think that’s what John is speaking of here.  He is speaking of the love that we develop as new borns, spiritually speaking, for our heavenly Father. It’s natural for a child to have a love for his father, and it should be a natural thing for us in the spiritual realm to have a love for God our Father.  And it’s truly a wonderful thing that we can call the Supreme God of the universe, our Father. We can go to Him as we would go to our Father.  Yes, we respect Him, we reverence Him, but we know that we are His child, and we have a special relationship with Him, and we love Him. That’s an important stage in our maturity as believers. To love God and know Him as our Father.

John then addresses once again the fathers.  The order of his repetition stays the same.  And in this category, the address is exactly the same. No change, except from present tense to past tense.  Vs 14, “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.” 

Once again the emphasis is on knowing Christ. And I suppose it is exactly the same because though the knowledge and experience  and maturity increases, the process stays the same.  It’s still abiding with Christ. It’s still following Christ.  To use a common metaphor, it’s like still being married to Christ.  What’s the difference between being married to someone for 10 years and being married to someone for 40 years? I would suggest that it gets better and better.

Married life may change as the years go by.  But there is nothing better in life than having someone who loves you, is committed to you, that understands you and cares about you.  To stay with someone, to persevere with someone through all the difficulties of life, that is love, and that produces a knowledge that is intimate, it produces a maturity that cannot be obtained through any short cut.  And perhaps also included in this address is the idea that John spoke of in vs 3, that you know that you know.  You have an assurance of your salvation that grows more sure as the years go by. And that’s a comforting thing as you get older, to know that you know you belong to Christ.

The last word that John gives is once again addressed to the young men.  “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”   In the previous address, John simply said you have overcome the evil one.  In this address, he tells us how they overcame him.

First he says it’s because you were strong.  The Bible is replete with admonitions to be strong.  But it’s usually accompanied with the phrase “in the Lord.”  “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.”  Young men are strong physically.  There is a natural strength and endurance that young men have that old men definitely no longer have.  But I don’t think John is talking about physical strength.  I think he’s talking about spiritual strength.  And spiritual strength is found in reliance upon the Lord.

In Luke 1:80, speaking of John the Baptist, it says, “And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”  He became strong in spirit. It’s spiritual strength that made John the Baptist great.

And the Bible indicates the same thing about Christ.  Luke 2:40 “The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” I’m sure that doesn’t mean that Jesus became strong like Samson, but rather strong spiritually. And it says of Jesus that His strength was related to increasing in wisdom.  That correlates to the next  point of how the young men overcame the evil one.

And that is because the word of God abides in you.  Knowledge is essential to maturity. They are equipped with spiritual knowledge.  Young men, spiritually speaking, are Christians who have acquired knowledge of the truth. They’re well established in the area of doctrine. As they have fed upon the spiritual meat of the word, spiritual strength has resulted. 

Jesus when He was tempted in the wilderness, overcame every temptation of the evil one with the word of God.  Each time Satan tempted Jesus, He responded with scripture.  Satan even tried to tempt Christ by incorporating scripture, but Christ interpreted scripture correctly.  You may have heard it said that the best offense is a good defense.  Well, our best defense against the temptations of the devil is the word of God, and the best offensive against the devil is the word of God.  The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.  How do you resist a liar and a deceiver?  With the truth of God’s word. 

Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Even as Christ relied upon the word to defeat the evil one, even more so must we depend upon the word of God for our strength, so that we may overcome the evil one.

Being an overcomer is the key to the process of sanctification. Knowing the word is the means by which we know the Father, and know the Son.  Let us be sure to feast daily on the word of God, and then in that strength exercise our faith by walking in the Spirit, so that we may overcome the evil one, and so that we may grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. 

2Peter 3:18 “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him [be] the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”