Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're looking again at Paul and Timothy. Stay tuned for our program. Well, we're looking in 2 Timothy chapter 2 today. Paul is writing to Timothy. Paul is the aged apostle. He's ready to pass off the scene, go to his reward. He's writing this young pastor whose name is Timothy, and he is leaving him some instructions, and it's important to understand that these instructions are from the Lord. We saw in our last broadcast that chapter one, he wrote and he said, Timothy, this is how you need to think. And thinking requires directing the mind towards something, and he gives him a lot of things to direct his mind toward. You get into chapter two, and he says, Timothy, this be, he says chapter two in verse one, thou therefore my son, be strong, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now, if you're going to have strength, that also requires something. You have to eat and you have to exercise. And the same thing is true spiritually, which, of course, that's what Paul's talking about here. You need to eat right. You need to have the right kind of food. Well, there's a lot of junk food on the spiritual market today, so you need to be careful what you're eating. But we also need to exercise. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 14 says we need to have our senses exercised so that we can discern both good and evil. Now, as Paul writes to this young pastor, he writes about discerning good. It's interesting, you'll find the word good 35 times in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, which are written to pastors to tell them how to behave themselves in the church and how things should go. Only 13 chapters, 35 times in those three books. And of course, that's the local church context is what it is. what is good. In 1 Timothy 2 and 3, it talks about knowing what is good and acceptable in the sight of God. Now, if we're going to know what is good and acceptable in the sight of God, we have to do what he said in chapter 1, we've got to do some thinking. requiring our mind in the direction of that particular subject, and then we're going to have to eat, we're going to have to exercise, obviously. And what it says in Hebrews is we have to exercise our senses to discern both good and evil. Now, you look in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, you'll find the words good works, good fight, good foundation, good soldier, good men, good things. Now, there's a requirement. We're going to know good works from bad works and a good fight from a fight that's not so good. Having a good foundation to not a good foundation, good soldiers to not good soldiers, Good men and not good men, good things and not good things, if we're going to know what they are, there's a requirement. We're going to have to have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That's what the Bible says, to discern good. Now, we need to also be able to discern evil. the Bible in 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. It talks about an evildoer, talks about evil men, it talks about evil work, talks about evil things, and we're going to have to exercise our senses so that we can discern both good and evil. You're not going to get it because you listen to a broadcast like this, or read what somebody says in their commentary, or a 45-minute class in a Bible college that you happen to get the view of your favorite professor there. What it's going to do is take some study. Now, we look in Revelation chapter 2, in verse number 14 in that local church there. And the letter, remember, was to the pastor. It was the pastor he was talking to. He was to preach the message to the people. But all of these seven letters were directed to the pastor. And if you look at them in that light, it'll open up some things for you. But it says here in Revelation 2 verse 14, Thou hast them there, the Lord said to the pastor, Thou hast them there. that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication, so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." And then the Lord said, Repent, or else. Now, the pastor at Pergamos here that he's writing to was a very hard worker for the cause of Christ. However, he lacked discernment to know about the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and they were about to destroy the local church for which he was responsible. Somehow this pastor had come through the ranks, whatever the ranks were in those days, to become a pastor of the church at Pergamos. He'd probably passed all his tests with pretty good marks, but he didn't learn how to discern false doctrine and sound doctrine from unsound doctrine. Or maybe he learned it, but he just didn't exercise his senses so he could discern what it all meant. The pastor at Pergamos was a hard worker. Christ said, I know thy works. Christ said to that pastor that he was working where Satan's seat was and where Satan dwelleth. The city of Pergamos was filled with pagan temples. Along with many pagan gods, Caesar instituted what was called the imperial religion, where Caesar was to be worshipped every year. It was a very dangerous place for Christians to live and worship. In Pergamos, Antipas is mentioned as a martyr who died for the cause of Christ there. And Christ commended the pastor's steadfastness, saying that he had held fast to his name, and the pastor had not denied faith. But he said in verse 14, he had a discernment problem. He said, but I have a few things against thee, because thou hast them there that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Now in verse 15, Christ rebuked the pastor, saying, So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Now Christ rebuked the pastor for corrupting the church by allowing wrong associations with those who promoted the false doctrine and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and he warned that pastor he said repent or else. Now, the pastor at Pergamos rejected the doctrine of separation, refused to separate from those who had promoted this false doctrine. He allowed those infiltrators to infiltrate, poisoned the membership with the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus said he hated. And so, we can't just let that go. Now, we have to learn how to hate. Sixteen times in the Word of God we find the phrase, I hate. The phrase occurs seven times in the book of Psalms where they were all spoken by the man after God's own heart. He said, I hate the work of them that turn aside. I hate every false way. I hate vain thoughts. I hate every false way again, he said in Psalm 119, 128. He said, I hate and abhor lying. I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee. I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies." He knew this is a man after God's own heart. He wasn't one of these pussyfooters just trying to make friends with everybody who hated Christ. Now, it's either this, I hate or I tolerate. The pastor at Pergamos was commended for many things. However, he was sharply rebuked because he tolerated what he should have hated. They had the doctrine of Balaam in there, and Balaam was Israel's phony fundamentalist. He really sounded good, but he was Israel's fundamental promoter of apostasy. Now, if you go to our website and check on Balaam, you'll find a complete article there and probably a bunch of messages there on him as well. Well, he was a stumbling block to the children of Israel, and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was a stumbling block to those who were at Pergamos, but the pastor didn't do anything about it like the leaders didn't do anything about it back in Israel's day. Well, in contrast to the pastor at Ephesus, Jesus commended the pastor there because he hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2.6. The pastor at Pergamos had not learned how to hate with a perfect hatred, as we read in Psalm 139 and 2, and soon the deeds of the Nicolaitans became the doctrine of the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2.15. The pastor at Ephesus hated what Jesus hated, Revelation 2.6. The pastor at Pergamos had no discernment concerning the things that Jesus hated, Revelation 2.15. I'm afraid there's a lot of that going on today in our pulpits as well. Well, this is just kind of an introduction to this second chapter here, where we see that Paul was writing to young Timothy, that pastor, and he was saying, Timothy, you need to be strong. You need to be strong. And in verse three, he says, you need to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now, what do soldiers do? They defend. You don't want to go out there looking for an argument, but what we need to do is what Jude said to do, and that is to earnestly contend for the faith. Well, we'll take it up from here in our next broadcast. Be sure and tune in.