Please be seated. When I think about what motivates me as a minister, the first thing that comes to mind is that it should be the glory of God. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And certainly that was Paul's goal and that was Timothy's goal as ministers of the word. But when I also think about what should motivate me as a minister of the Word, and what should motivate Timothy as a minister of the Word, it is to be found faithful with what God has entrusted to me. Timothy would want to be faithful with the charge he had to care for the church in Ephesus. And when I think about that, I'm often reminded of the fact that one day I will die, and one day I will stand before Christ, and what do I want Him to say? Well, I want Him to say what He says He will say to His faithful followers, well done, good and faithful servant. I want to be a good and faithful servant. And so Timothy wanted to be a good and faithful servant there in Ephesus, and Paul wanted to be a good and faithful servant as he was passing the truth to Timothy. And the way that that's described in our passage is being an approved worker. A worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, he mentions it a couple of times in this passage, but in verse 15 he says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, that is approved by God, having His acceptance and His approval. A one who needs not be ashamed, a worker who needs not be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. I want that to be true of me. Timothy wanted that to be true of him, and no doubt Paul also wanted it to be true of him. An approved worker, having God's stamp of approval on his ministerial labors. And obviously later on in this passage when he talks about cleansing oneself, of the things that are dishonorable and being a pure vessel. It says there in verse 21 that we want to be set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. We want to be useful to the Lord. We want to be set apart to God. We want to be consecrated to Him so that God can use us to proclaim His gospel and to advance His kingdom. And so what Paul is talking about in this passage is really how Timothy is supposed to be an approved worker. How he is supposed to labor for the cause of Christ and how he's supposed to proclaim the gospel and disciple men there in the church so that the torch can be passed to the next generation. But what are the characteristics of a man who is supposed to be an approved worker? What are the characteristics of a minister who is supposed to be an approved worker? But also, you might think, again, making the necessary changes to your own life, what does it look like in your life to be an approved worker for God's kingdom? What does that look like? That's what Paul is developing in our passage today, and there are really four characteristics that the Apostle Paul gives of what an approved worker is in this passage, and I want to direct our attention to them this morning. First of all, notice with me that an approved worker avoids silly controversies. Avoids silly controversies. Look what he says in verse 14. He says, remind them of these things. Timothy, these things that I'm telling you, remind others of these things there in the church. And charge them before God, solemn words, charge them not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. What Paul is talking about to Timothy, and that Timothy's going to share with the Ephesian church there, is that we should avoid foolish controversies. He calls it quarrels about words. Now obviously, Timothy is supposed to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. He's supposed to teach sound doctrine. He's supposed to refute error. But what Paul is trying to get Timothy to see is that not everything is a matter of orthodoxy. Not everything is worth fighting about. There are quarrels about words. There is theological hair-splitting that should be avoided. And so what Paul is telling Timothy is there are certain kinds of controversies you can get involved in and tied up in knots in and you can ruin the hearers. You can create problems because people become theological nitpickers where they're constantly pouncing on the words of others and saying they're not using the right vocabulary. Of course, there are times to debate the substance of an issue and contend for the substance, but there's also times when we're just really fighting about words. You know that this has been a theme in the pastoral epistles, if you flip back with me for a second to 1 Timothy chapter 1. in verse 4, where he warned Timothy about those who were devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies, and what was wrong with these myths and endless genealogies was, chapter 1 and verse 4, was that they promote speculations. They're debating about things that aren't even in Scripture, and they're just speculating beyond what has been written. We also see this similar warning in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 4, where he spoke of false teachers as being puffed up, 1 Timothy 6 and verse 4, puffed up with conceit and understanding nothing, he has an unhealthy craving for controversy, for quarrels about words which produce envy and dissension and slander and evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth. And so he warned about this unhealthy craving for controversy there in 1 Timothy 6, 4. The same thing will later show up in Titus chapter 3 in verse 9 where it says, avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and dissensions and quarrels about the law. And so there's this warning of not making everything a test of orthodoxy, but focusing on the substance of sound teaching. Calvin says, God does not wish to indulge our curiosity, but to instruct us in a useful manner. All the teaching of God's Word, it's not for our speculation, it's not for academics, it's not for theory, but it's truth according to godliness. It's to show us who God is and how we are supposed to live. What man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. But there are these quarrels about words that Paul is warning Timothy as an approved worker to avoid. One illustration of this, I can think, to make the distinction between when you fight and when you don't, is the Arian controversy in the fourth century of the church. In the fourth century of the church, there was a heresy known as Arianism. And the heresy essentially said that Jesus was the son of the eternal God, but He was not the eternal Son of God. He was of similar substance with His Father, but not of the same substance. It has been well said that the Arian controversy actually was a disagreement about a single Greek letter, iota, because the word for same substance was homoousios, that's what Christ is, He of same substance with the Father, that's orthodoxy. And the similar substance was homoiousios, the letter iota made the difference between those two words, similar substance. So the false teachers were saying Christ was like God, and orthodoxy says no, He is God. That's not hair splitting. That is of substance. So sometimes there can be a debate about a word that's of the substance of the faith and needs to be fought about. Athanasius, who defended orthodoxy at the time of the Arian controversy, did say, some people say homoousios, similar substance, and they mean homoousios, same substance. Don't fight with them, he said. Don't quarrel about the words they're using. Get to the essence of it. And what's the substantial doctrinal issue at stake? You have to avoid the foolish controversies so that you focus on the things that really matter. At what point does it really matter and you're fighting about substance rather than theological hair splitting? And so we have to be careful. We live in a, we are in a denomination in the PCA that prizes doctrine and doctrinal integrity very highly as we should. And we should care greatly about maintaining the faith and preserving it. But that doesn't mean that we need to get involved in every little squabble about words. There are certain controversies that should be avoided. They should be avoided in the church so that we're not fighting about those things that are unnecessary to fight about. There are things that are of the essence of the gospel, and we need to fight about them. Are they the essence of our system of doctrine in the Presbyterian church and should be fought over? But there are other things that are not worth quarreling over, and we must be very careful about that. An approved worker avoids, he avoids foolish controversies. That's what he's saying there in verse 14. We also see that Paul says to Timothy that an approved worker not only avoids the foolish controversies, but he rightly handles God's word. Rightly handles God's word. Verse 15, he says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Now I remember when I was a kid and I was given a ward Bible when I graduated Sunday school in second grade or something like that, and on the front of the study Bible it had 2 Timothy 2.15. And it was in the King James and it said, study to show thyself approved unto God. And I always thought that was a verse exhorting us to be Bible students. Well, at the time the King James Version of the Bible was translated, study meant something different. It was a good translation of the Greek word that's used here, but it's not actually the best translation. ESV captures it better. It's not study to present yourself to God as one approved, it's do your best. The word means something like agonize and work hard and labor and strive and use all your effort and energy to be approved in God's sight. Strive to win God's acceptance. Strive to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Strive to live in a way that you will receive the accolade of the Almighty. That's the idea that's being captured there. Strive to present yourself to God as one approved. It requires energy and effort and discipline and dedication is the idea. But as you're striving to be approved by God, what are you supposed to be doing? Well, you're avoiding the foolish controversies, but you're also, verse 15, rightly handling the word of truth. The old translation was rightly dividing the word of truth. Literally in the original it's the idea of cutting straight or cutting rightly. And so you might imagine a carpenter cutting through a piece of wood and he blows off the sawdust and there's that straight line across the beam, cutting it upright. And most likely the original idea was the idea of cutting out proper portions from God's Word and giving it to the people so they could take it in little by little. You think about those of you who are parents and you have small children and you're, let's say you're serving pork chop or steak some night, what do you do? You get out a knife and you cut it up in little bite-sized pieces and you give it to your children so that they can take it in and they don't choke. And so God's Word rightly handling the Word of Truth is the idea of not giving the people too much, too big pieces, but breaking it up little by little and giving it in manageable portions. It's also the idea of handling the Word of God rightly in the sense of properly interpreting it, making proper distinctions, like maybe between law and gospel, presenting the truth in a balanced way, we might say, the whole counsel of God. giving the truth in measurable amounts as well as we have said. Jesus said in John 16 and verse 12, I have more to say to you, but you can't bear it now. And so Jesus even cut the word rightly and he cut it up and he delivered it out to his disciples in ways that they could handle. And an approved worker will know the truth, he will understand it well, and he will pass it on to others. As we've said, we're not all ministers, but whether you're a father or a mother or a Sunday school teacher or a mentor. You need to be able to rightly handle the Word of God if you're going to pass it on to others. That means you need to study the Word of God. You need to read the Word of God daily. You need to understand it systematically and what it teaches, the whole counsel of God's Word, so that you can give it out to others. The more we study the Word of God, the better we understand it, the better we are equipped to teach it to our children, our grandchildren, our new believer. We have the responsibility to strive to do our best to present ourselves approved unto God. Workers who need not be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth. It's one thing to know it theoretically, it's another thing to apply it practically and pastorally, and of course ministers do that, but also we're all called, in a sense, to teach it to others. And so, an approved worker avoids these foolish controversies. An approved worker rightly handles the word of truth, and then notice here, thirdly, that an approved worker exposes false teaching. Unapproved worker exposes false teaching. Notice what he says as he continues to deal with the false teaching that Timothy will be facing there in Ephesus. He says, avoid, verse 16, irreverent babble. So this irreverent babble is empty words. It's not just the quarreling about words that is theological hair-splitting. It's beyond that. This is irreverent babble. It's godless chatter, one translation puts it. That's how he's describing false teaching. And notice how he describes this false teaching in terms of the effect that it has on the people of God. In verse 16, he says, False teaching in the Bible is not just teaching that is incorrect or that is not theologically right, but it's also teaching that leads to wickedness. False teaching leads to false living, just like right teaching leads to right living. We saw earlier on that the Apostle Paul called orthodoxy truth according to godliness. Truth produces a holiness of heart and a holiness of life, whereas false teaching leads to wickedness. Think about in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said, that we are to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." What did he say? You'll know them by their fruits. You'll know them by their fruits, because false teaching produces certain fruits, wickedness and ungodliness and dissension and evil. And so he says this teaching is going to lead people to more and more ungodliness, and so that's one of the problems of it. Notice also how he talks about how it spreads. He says in verse 17 that this false teaching will spread like gangrene. That's disgusting, repulsing thought. Spreading like an infectious disease, perhaps. Most scholars will say it's not necessarily just gangrene. The idea is this infectious spreading throughout tissue and the disgusting and repulsive nature of it. And false teaching spreads. Now some will say it's only a little thing, it's only a minor thing, it doesn't really matter, that's often what happens when false teaching spreads. Moderates in the mushy middle will say, oh it's just a small minor little thing and it's not going to really infect the body of Christ and hurt anyone. The quote from Scripture is, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The Bible tells us that some false teaching, though it might be small, if it is significant, it can spread, and it can lead others to more and more ungodliness, like gangrene, as disgusting and revolting as a pitcher as that is. And so Paul is trying to get Timothy to take seriously this false teaching, where it leads, how it spreads. And notice, just jump ahead with me for a moment, what it does. Notice where he talks about these two individuals, Hymenaeus and Philetus, and it talks about their heresy. Notice that it says, we'll come back to them in a moment, but in verse 18, it says that they've said the resurrection has already happened, and then what's the effect of this? The last part of verse 18, they're upsetting the faith of some. So it leads to ungodliness. It spreads like gangrene in that repulsive, disgusting way, and it upsets the faith of the people of God. It impacts believers, because they hear this false teaching, and they're confused, and they wonder, is this acceptable? Is this right? Does this make sense? It doesn't fit with what I've always been taught. And their faith is rightly upset, and it is troubled by these things. But notice the point here. I said an approved worker exposes the false teaching. In this passage, notice how Paul is not just exposing where the false teaching leads and what it does and how it spreads and how it has an impact and upsets the faith of others. Paul even identifies by name the false teachers. Look what he says. In his letter, forever recorded in the New Testament, identifies the men who were lying about the Lord's truth. He says in verse 17, among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus. He calls them out by name. And why does he do that? Because they have advocated this heresy. What's the heresy? Verse 18. They've said the resurrection has already happened. Believe it or not, there are even people today who hold to this heresy. They're known as hyper-preterists. They say that with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D., all New Testament prophecies were fulfilled. Certainly some were fulfilled, but they would say all, including the future resurrection, and they spiritualize the resurrection, and they say it's already happened. And these heretics in the first century were saying probably something similar. They were saying that in some spiritual sense, in some allegorical sense, the resurrection has already happened. In other words, they were denying what we confess in the Apostles' Creed, which we will confess later this morning, that I believe in the resurrection of the body. That we believe that when Jesus returns, we will physically, literally, historically rise again into the resurrection of life. There'll be a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust. And there'll be a final judgment. That's an essential Christian belief. And yet these men were denying that, and Paul identifies them by name. There are some people today who Think that we should be kinder than God and never identify a false teacher by name. Now, there certainly requires wisdom. There are places in Paul's letters where he doesn't name people, where in his kindness and his patience for pastoral reasons doesn't list the person who has sinned. I'm thinking especially like in 2 Corinthians when he identifies the man who has been restored after church discipline. Paul doesn't name him. But there are places where for the betterment of the church, he names these false teachers. He says, this is who I'm talking about. And so sometimes it can be helpful in the life of the church for an approved worker to say, this person is a false teacher. What would that look like today? Well, I think, for example, it would require that at times when it's pastorally appropriate to name, for example, those who are teaching the health and wealth prosperity gospel. To say Benny Hinn is a false teacher. To say Joel Osteen is a false teacher. To identify these people and say Creflo Dollar is a heretic. Do not listen to him. These people are wrong and they are false. Also includes those in the evangelical church who depart from the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Andy Stanley has unhitched from the Old Testament, and we should unhitch from him. He's a false teacher. He says Christians shouldn't obey the Ten Commandments. That is false teaching. There's a time and a place to identify by name those who are lying about the truth of God and to say they will be held accountable by God. They're held to a greater accountability by saying that they're teachers in the church and we should call them. You may know that even Jesus used some of the hardest language for those who taught falsehood in his days. Think about when Jesus spoke of the Pharisees. He called them snakes and he called them vipers. He even called Herod a fox. There's a time and a place to use strong language, especially with those who are teaching false gospels or lies that will destroy people's lives. And so there is a place for that, and Paul says God's approved worker must be willing to say that, to not just speak in generalities and no one knows what you're saying, but to actually identify the source of error. Now, one of the things that would have been discouraging for Timothy, as it is often discouraging for us on our day, is that these false teachers arise from within the visible church. At some time, it's probably true that Hymenaeus and Philetus made a credible profession of faith and were baptized. It is most likely that they came to the Lord's table. Like many of the apostates in the Bible, they're part of the visible church. And so it's discouraging to see someone commit apostasy who you once regarded as a believer and even perhaps a faithful teacher. And so Paul reminds Timothy here that God's electing grace was never in jeopardy. that God has always known who His true people are. Look what He says in verse 19. He says, God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, this seal of approval from God. The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. In other words, God has a register of the redeemed. God knows all of those people He has unconditionally chosen before the foundation of the world to be saved. That people He will bring by the Spirit to faith and repentance. That people will continue in repentance throughout the whole course of their lives. They will depart from iniquity. As for those who are like Hymenaeus and Philetus, who went out from us, As 1 John 2.19 says, they went out from us because they were never of us to begin with. Their apostasy revealed their spurious conversion and that they actually didn't belong to the Lord to begin with. Think about in that bone-chilling passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, many will come. in the last day, and they will say, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, didn't I cast out demons in your name? Didn't I do this or that work of miracle in your name? And what does Jesus say? He says, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. Not I once knew you, and now I don't. I never knew you. The Lord knows who are his. He knows who are his, and he preserves them in a state of salvation. But there is within the visible church, the professing church, people like Hymenaeus and Philetus who lead people astray and seek to make shipwreck of the faith. and they must be marked and they must be avoided. Mark and avoid is the nature of identifying these false teachers. And so there are foolish controversies we avoid, but also the approved worker must actually know when to identify someone and say, beware of listening to this person and sitting under this individual's teaching. Notice also in the fourth place here, he talks about something else. He talks about an approved worker avoiding foolish controversies. rightly handling the word of truth, he talks about him exposing false teachers, and then fourthly and finally, an approved worker keeps himself clean. This is the point that's being made in verses 20, 21, the approved worker is to keep himself clean, and Paul uses this metaphor that's mixed, so it can kind of be confusing. In verse 20, he talks about a house. There's a great house, and in the house there's honorable items and dishonorable items. There's gold and silver, but there's also these dishonorable things. And so the question becomes, what does Paul mean when he refers to the house? Well, most likely, most commentators are agreed, and I think this is correct, that probably the house is the visible church. The house earlier on in 1 Timothy 3 was the household of the faith, the church of the living God, and Timothy was to care for that house. And what he's saying is that within the visible church, there's weed and chaff. There is gold and precious silver, but there's also wood and clay. Not everyone in the visible church is necessarily regenerate and are eternally saved. And so what you need to focus on then, Timothy, is cleansing yourself, focusing on yourself, that you are a honorable vessel. That's what he says in verse 21. If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use. He'll be set apart as holy and he'll be useful to the master of the house. So what is he saying? Timothy, make sure you're keeping your own life clean. What is in your heart that needs to be repented of? What is in your heart that dishonors the Lord? Is there lust? Is there greed? Is there pride? Is there selfishness? Is there a desire for others to praise you and to be a somebody? What is in your heart that dishonors the Lord? Because we recognize even in these false teachers that are named and they're apostates and they're sinful, That the seeds of what they did are in our hearts as well. When you look at someone else and you think, I would never do something like that, I would never say something like that, you're not thinking correctly. We have to realize that the sins that we see in others, those same seeds are in our flesh, and our flesh dwells no good thing. And we have to be cleansed from within. We have to have the work of the gospel applied to our own hearts so that we are repenting of sin and so that we are being cleansed so that we can be pure vessels for the Lord's work. Robert Murray McShane, one of my heroes, Scottish Presbyterian minister, once said, a holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God. And that's true for all of us. A holy mother, a holy father, a holy mentor, a holy Sunday school teacher, a holy worker on the job is a mighty instrument in the hands of God. Much God can do through not just our words, but the way that we live our lives. Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how shall it be restored? You are a city set on a hill. We're supposed to let our light shine. Others are supposed to see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven. We are called upon in Hebrews chapter 12 to pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Are we pursuing that holiness in our own lives? Striving to be as holy as it's possible for sinners saved and justified by grace alone to be. That ongoing work of the Spirit of cleansing us, showing us the things that we do not like about ourselves so that we can get rid of what is dishonorable and be fit for every good work. Timothy needed to know that in the midst of quarreling with all these false teachers, and in the midst of laboring earnestly in Ephesus, what his true goal would be. And his true goal would be to glorify God. but also to hear those words of approval and validation on the last day, well done, good and faithful servant. Do you believe that? Is that what the ambition of your life is? Maybe not a minister, but as a mother, as a father, in your retirement years, maybe, maybe just a single person on your job, maybe mentoring someone else in this church, Maybe your participation in the life of this community here in Olive Branch. What's your ultimate ambition? Is it to hear from Christ himself, well done, good and faithful servant? That should be the desire of our hearts. We want to do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly handling that word of truth. We must strive for that. with all the energy that He mightily works within us by His grace alone. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. Heaven and earth will pass away, but your words will never pass away. Lord, we ask that these words, that we would understand the significance and the relevance of them for us all. Different callings placed upon our lives, different circumstances, but we want to be faithful. We want to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. And so we pray that by your grace, that you would help us to repent of sin, to trust in Jesus alone for our right standing with you, but also to rely on the work of the Spirit within us to be pure vessels set apart for you, ready for every good work. Use us, Lord, for your kingdom. For we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.