Well, if you would turn to 2 Timothy, and our focus this morning is gonna be on, or this evening, is going to be on verses 14 to 19, but I think I'll read the entire chapter of 2 Timothy, or up to that point, 2 Timothy 1, 2 Timothy 2, 1 through 19. Not making it easy for you to find the right place. So 2 Timothy chapter two, and we'll begin at verse one. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers. 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. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. they are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." The overall outline of Second Timothy, you can see is chapter one, hold to sound doctrine. Chapter two is teach sound doctrine. That's where we are. Chapter three is abide in sound doctrine. And chapter four is preach sound doctrine. In this section we're looking at tonight is a follow-up to the faithful saying, which comes to us in verses 11 through 13, a reminder that we die with Christ, we reign with Christ, we are a warning not to deny Christ, and a reminder that God is faithful to us. He cannot deny himself. So the larger passage from verse 14, really through the end of the chapter, is made up of two parts. This first part is the exhortation to Timothy to become an approved servant, worker, in God's field and vineyard. And the second part, beginning of verse 20, is describing a vessel for noble use in God's house. So we're looking at that first part of that tonight, and Ryan will pick up next week with the second part. And as we look at these verses in 14 to 19, what we end up seeing is sort of an ebb and flow back and forth of positive and negative commands or exhortations. We have positively remind them of these things, negatively charge them to avoid disputes about words, then positively present yourself to God as an approved workman who's unashamed, then negatively, avoid, excuse me, irreverent babble, and then positively, but we have confidence of perseverance because God's foundation is sure and he knows those who are his. So as we watch this ebb and flow back and forth kind of discussion, what we'll see in verses 14 and 15 is the call to wise teaching. And then in verses 16 to 19 is the danger of false teaching, which is very typical of Paul. in these pastoral epistles. So in his call to Timothy for wise teaching, he tells him in verse 14, the first part of it, remind them of these things. What things? Well, probably very much in particular, the faithful saying that he had just given to them. Remind them, and it's a present imperative, which means this is something he needs to continually do. We need the regular reminders of God's truth. One writer said, we need to dare to be boring. We need to say the same things over and over again. And the reason we need to hear the same things over and over again, it's not that you aren't smart enough to get it the first time, but we have a great temptation to be forgetful. We get caught up in the trials that are part of our lives, and we need to be reminded of the core truths of God's word. We need to be brought to mind those things. And the danger of arguing over words, and later on the danger of false teaching is that If we depart from the foundational truths of the gospel, it can lead us into error. And so we need to be very careful to hold fast. the truth. J.C. Ryle had a book titled Old Paths and his exhortation, we need to stay in the old paths and not wander from them. And that's true. So Paul tells Timothy initially, positively, remind them of these things. Keep these things in front of them so they don't forget them. And you and I need those reminders too. So we hold fast to the truth. But then negatively, he says, charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers. So he's charging them before God here to something to avoid. There's a little play on words in the Greek about kind of nothing. The quarreling about words doesn't do any good and it brings only ruin. There's sort of a play on words, a debate about words. He's warning about that. I don't think it's primarily heresy here. because when we get to verse 16, it's gonna be really, I think, specifically heretical truths. Doesn't mean these battle over words can't lead to heretical thoughts. But I think it's more an exhortation for not getting caught up in battles over words that can discourage our faith. And when it says, only ruins hearers, it's the word for catastrophe, which as I look at it, it seems kind of... Not extreme, maybe. It seems kind of alarming. But this whole idea of debating over words is a challenge for us to think about. What does that mean, quarreling about words? Because words at times can be very, very important. And I think it has a lot more to say about perhaps the manner or we get focused on certain things and we don't believe the truth that we're listening to even if we hear it in different words. Daniel Doriani gives an illustration that perhaps helps us think about this. He was speaking at a conference. and talking about the work of God, his justice, his faithfulness, his love, and his mercy, his righteousness. And a man came up to him afterwards and said, you are failing to present the holiness of God. And he's saying, well, no, I just said all these things that are related to the holiness of God. And he had this conversation with this man who was very intense and very determined to say, you are not. presenting the holiness of God, and it finally kind of, the light bulbs began to come on, and he said, so, this man had apparently just read a book on the holiness of God, and so Dr. Doriani came back and said, so, if I don't use the exact phrase, the holiness of God, in every talk, then I dishonor God if I don't use those words. And the man smiled and said, exactly. Well, there was an argument over words. He was ignoring the truth that was being taught, and he was debating these words. And so you and I have to be careful in our discussions that We're careful not to get caught up in things that would distract us from the essential truth that we need to be holding fast to. And it takes a lot of wisdom and balance and understanding to try to to walk this pathway. Sometimes it can also apply to how we're presenting things. There are those who want a little more gentle approach, and then there's others who want a specific denunciation of what they see as not stated properly. And the manner of it can come into play in this. So it's a challenge to listen to what Paul is telling Timothy, but we want to be careful not to put roadblocks in the place of our fellow believers and discourage those who hear us. But that is not to say that words aren't important. I think that's the other side. We need to be careful Not to get caught up in distracting arguments over words, but words are important. Back in 1923, J. Gresham Machen wrote a book called Christianity and Liberalism. It's because liberalism was redefining words. Jesus was the savior, but it wasn't that he saved you from the penalty of God's judgment against your sin. but he saved you from having a meaningless life. Well, that's not it. We can't, so there we need to argue about words. We need to make sure the words are stating the truth and not presenting something that's false. And so this exhortation we need to listen to but we, and pray a lot for God's help in applying it, but sometimes the church has to argue over words. And so Paul would not be denying that. He's said plenty to Timothy about standing for the truth. So we have that section that I'm sure I've left you totally vague in your thinking, but hopefully you can reflect on it. He comes back positively, so positively remind them of these things, negatively charge them not to get caught up in arguing about words. Positively, he comes back to Timothy himself in verse 15, 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. Do your best. Put forth effort. If you want to be an approved worker, you have to work hard at it. He's talking to Timothy and all those pastors and preachers that would follow in his stead in the generations to come. Paul is urging upon him that to preach, to teach well, takes hard work. And you need to put your energies into it. And so you have to work hard at that. Pastors, learn biblical languages, they work hard to try to understand what the scriptures say, to be able to exegete it and apply it. And so Paul's saying you need to put forth hard work. There was an older minister that was one time asked How are you able to preach these wonderful sermons that you preach? And these were young seminarians and they were expecting some kind of golden advice. And he came back and told them, hard work. There is no magic pill, you just have to work at it. like you do with your schoolwork or other things. And his goal in working hard is two qualities, to be an approved worker, to be a workman that's approved. Yourself to God is one approved. The word for approving there is the idea that it's something that's been tested and found worthy. It fits very well into the normal procedures for a man coming to be ordained. He has to go through a probation. He has to go through testing and being examined, tested and found worthy to be in that work and do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. a worker who has no need to be ashamed. So in other words, you do your work carefully and thoroughly so that you can stand before God. It won't be perfect by any means, but you do it to the best of your ability. so that you won't be ashamed, that you put forth the effort and God will be pleased and approving of the work that you're doing. And the demonstration of this hard work that approves you and for which you have no need to be ashamed is that you're rightly handling the word of truth. The word of truth is the gospel. Turn to Ephesians 1, verse 13. Ephesians 1, verse 13, Paul says, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So you heard the word of truth, which is the gospel of your salvation. You have the same idea in Colossians 1, Colossians 1 verse 5, where he says, "'because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, "'of this you have heard before "'in the word of truth, the gospel.'" And so the word of truth that Timothy has, that he has to handle is the gospel. He needs to work hard to prepare that, to be able to handle it. And the idea of handling it, It has the word ortho in it. It's the idea of like an orthopedic surgeon is someone who's trying to straighten out limbs. You have orthodox, which means to teach straight from the Bible. And so you have this idea of rightly handling is it's to cut a straight path without deviation. In that day, the word was used for cutting stones straight so that they could be built into a foundation of a building or a temple. It was used for those who built roads. They cut a straight path so the roads were straight. And here it's applied to Timothy's handling of the word of God. then he needs to cut a straight path with the truth and present it clearly and carefully in a way that God's people can understand. And it's a challenge at times to present that word of truth carefully, but the pastor, the preacher needs to do that, he needs to present that word, and he does it before God. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. And Paul's gonna repeat this idea in chapter four, when he talks about how the church is gonna have, in fact, if you're back in 2 Timothy 4, you can go, 2 Timothy, go back to, go to chapter 4. In verse three it says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And the challenge for a minister is always to preach the gospel with an eye toward God watching him and not the congregation watching him. because the congregation will be full of those who are mature or those who are immature, those who have one interest or thought at one time or another. And a pastor can't forget the human audience because he's addressing people he knows and loves and cares for and he needs to apply it to them and be considerate of them and their needs, no question about that. But he needs to cut the straight path with the truth, even if he knows not everyone will like it. And that can be a real challenge, especially if you're a people pleaser. There's gonna be someone pretty much every Sunday who leaves unhappy. Though I don't wish that to be the case, but it often is. And you have to be careful, Timothy as a preacher has to be careful to present the truth as God gives it to us in his word, faithfully and carefully. So that's Paul's call to Timothy to wise teaching and present himself as a servant of the Lord in that way. But then Paul turns to the danger of false teaching. Now, this is not a new thing for Paul. We have seen in 1 Timothy and in Titus that Paul regularly warns about the danger of false prophets, false teachers, and the correction of them as well. But in verse 16, he gives them the specific command. Here we're back on the negative. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Here I think Paul is directing himself more toward heresy that could be part of the discussion of words or it could be a manner in dealing with the discussions where it becomes conflict where it doesn't need to be. But here he is telling him to avoid irreverent babble. And the word for babble almost just sounds like babble, like babbling that you might hear. It's a profane chatter, some translations have. It's empty, it's godless, and unlike Christian speech, which gives grace to the hearers, Here we have this irreverent babble that's going to lead people to the two results that leads people into more ungodliness. And it spreads like gangrene. So you have two descriptive qualities there. It encourages ungodly behavior. And it spreads like a disease among the people of God, among the community, and draws people away from the truth. It's a crippling disease. So look at chapter 1, verse 13, here of 2 Timothy. where Paul in that play says, follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. So it's sound words were to follow, not irreverent babbling. These people who just pratt on about different things. Well, what is he talking about? Well, he gives an illustration. There could be other illustrations he picks, but he gives an illustration of what he's talking about. there in the middle of verse 17, among them, these irreverent babblers, among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. So there's two men he has in mind in particular. Hymenaeus and Philetus, and Hymenaeus is someone that Paul is already condemned for blasphemy. Turn back to First Timothy chapter one. First Timothy chapter one, verse 20. And let me back up to verse 19. Holding faith in a good conscience, and in the middle of that, by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. So Hymenaeus and Alexander were blasphemers, and here it's Hymenaeus and Philetus, who are these irreverent babblers, and the specific irreverent babbling they had was that they said the resurrection had already taken place. And so they were discouraging the faith of God's people. It possibly is related to some of the first century heresies that grew out of the great disdain for the body, So the resurrection of the body particularly would have not been something the Greeks would have had any interest in. And Plato himself said the soul is imprisoned in the body. So he saw the body as this terrible, prison for our souls and we needed to get rid of the bodies so that our soul could be freed. And some of the various errors of the first century in relation to this that would have played into denying or saying that the resurrection has already happened, that play into this denial of the appropriate place of the body and certainly the resurrection of the body. There were those who said bodily pleasures are dangerous, so they would practice this intense self-denial. There were others who said, well bodily pleasures are indifferent, so you can do whatever you want. The Gnostics particularly, they spiritualized the resurrection. So they had no interest in a physical resurrection. They spiritualized the resurrection and they reduced the resurrection to some sort of enlightenment. So your hope wasn't for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, but your hope was to listen to them and be enlightened in your spirit. So it was a denial of the resurrection, which the Bible clearly teaches. And this idea that the resurrection has already happened would have been a great and terrible discouragement because the people then, as we now, we live in a day and an age of trial and testing. And basically they were saying, well, the best has already happened. So the most we can hope for is to live in what we have. And one author says, to claim that the present with all of its pain is all that God has in store for us is to drain life of meaning and hope. It's to believe that this broken life is all there is. To believe that sin and death have the final word. And so these vain babblers, these irreverent babblers were teaching this false doctrine, this heretical doctrine and discouraging the faith of many. And when we read about that and when perhaps we are confronted sometimes with people who have really strange ideas or false ideas about God and his work in this world, it maybe can be discouraging, especially if they're very convincing in the way that they speak. But Paul doesn't want us to be left with that discouragement. left with that fine sounding but irreverent babbling kind of hanging over us. What is our hope? There's a hope that we have. There's an encouragement that we have, and that's what he gives us in verse 19. It's the positive antidote to the irreverent babbling. He says, but God's firm foundation stands. You and I don't have to be worried about fine-sounding teachers who seem to be convincing, even if you can't answer them. You don't have to be discouraged because God's foundation is sure. Nothing will thwart God's plan from being fulfilled. Nothing will prevent his work from being accomplished. This world will pass away, but God's foundation stands sure. And so you have every reason for a great hope and great confidence because of that truth. But then he goes on by saying, bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. God knows who belong to him and they will never be lost. It's as Jesus said in John 10, I know my sheep and my sheep know me. And he says, no one can take them out of my hand. God knows those who are His. He's quoting here from a verse in Numbers 16. And in Numbers 16 is the story of Korah and the other leaders of Israel who objected to the leadership of Moses and Aaron over the people of Israel. And they said, you don't need to have authority. You don't have any authority over the us. And so Moses appealed to God to judge between Korah and these rebels and him and Aaron. And God said for each to stand in their tents. And Moses proclaimed, he said, the Lord, the Hebrew phrasing of it, the Lord will show or make known who is his. And God did make known who was his because the earth opened and swallowed alive Korah and all those in rebellion against God. And God showed who belonged to him in that great act. But what's interesting is the Septuagint, the Greek translation of that verse is, doesn't state it, the Lord will show those who are his, but it translates it, the Lord knows. Let me go back. The Hebrew is, the Lord will make known those who are his. The Greek translation of that is, the Lord knows those who are his. And so it's the positive affirmation. God already made known in that instance who was his, who belonged to him, and who did not. But now the truth has been changed a bit to saying the Lord knows those who are his. He knows those who belong to him. It's the truth that God will preserve his church and his people despite any threat, doctrinally or in any other way, to the church. Korah could not destroy Israel And these babbling heretics cannot destroy the church. God's foundation is sure. And it's understood and known. It bears this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. The Lord knows you. The Lord knows you are his. And no one can thwart that. No one can take that away. So when you're faced with the discouragements of fine sounding unbelief, don't let yourself be discouraged. Remember, God knows you are his. And then the application of that is let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. We're firm in our foundation. God knows that we belong to him, and so out of love and confidence and hope in the Lord, then we apply that by departing from iniquity, living a godly life, following the Lord. in our hope and our confidence. And what's interesting is that last phrase, departing from iniquity, would have kind of an implicit connection still with number 16. Because Moses commanded all the other people of Israel, all the rest of the Israelites, he says, depart from Korah. And he tells you and I as his children, depart from iniquity. walk in godliness. You and I, in facing a Reverend Babler, may at times feel threatened, but God knows you, and you will never perish. No one can snatch you out of Jesus' hand. And just to conclude with our Westminster Confession of Faith, In chapter 17, paragraph one says, they whom God has accepted in his beloved, effectually called, sanctified by his spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. No matter what you are going through, no matter what challenges you may face, God will keep you to the end. Let that note of hope encourage you in your perseverance in the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your truth. Help us in our various callings and roles to be workmen that are approved and not ashamed We pray, Lord, that, I pray for Ryan and I, that we will rightly handle the word of truth. We pray, Lord, for all of us as we face at times challenges by those who sound very fine and believable, but are turning aside from the truth. They're departing from the truth of the gospel. Help us, Lord, to be confident in you, confident in our hope, confident in our relationship with you, that you know us and you know who belongs to you. And may we live in the confidence and the hope and persevere in grace that we have in Christ our Lord. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.