Hello and welcome to message number 7 on the subject of Paul and Timothy. Stay tuned for our program. Well, Paul is in prison. He's about ready to leave this world. He's writing to his best friend, I think his best friend that he had in the world at that time, the young man by the name of Timothy. And he writes to him here in 2 Timothy, his final letter, and he says in chapter 1, Timothy, this is what you need to think. Second Timothy, chapter two, he said, Timothy, Pastor Timothy, this is what you need to be. Chapter three, this is what you need to know. And chapter four, this is what you need to do. Now we've been looking at chapter two, we've talked about thinking right. We get to chapter two, he's talking about being strong. Be strong, he said. Now that's very important. Thou therefore my son, he calls him his son because he led him to the Lord, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Well, if you're going to be strong physically, we're going to have to eat the right food. And we're going to have to exercise. And here to be strong is to be able to discern between good and evil. We've got a series of broadcasts, if you want to listen to them, they're on our website, on exercising our senses so that we will be able to discern between good and evil. And that's what he wants Timothy to do, and it's written for our admonition, so as pastors, that's what he wants us to do. We get the idea that, oh, well, I've spent four years in a Bible college, I got it all together now. The reason they call it a commencement after those four years is you're just commencing, and you can have your head full of all kinds of knowledge about the Bible, but unless you exercise your senses to discern that knowledge, It's not worth a whole lot to you. You need to be at it all the time. Now, he gives Timothy three examples here. Verse 13, he says in chapter 2, he talks about a soldier, not just any old soldier, but a good soldier. Then in chapter 2 and verse number 5, he talks about an athlete. And then in verse 6, he talks about a farmer using these three examples of what it means to think right and be strong. And so, particularly in the area of being strong, he says you need to be a good soldier. Well, a good soldier is going to follow orders. Isaiah 30, 21 says, And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. Now in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 14, we have the whole purpose for Timothy receiving these letters from Paul. He says in verse 14, These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, now he said, this is too important, so I can't wait in case I'm too long getting there. He said, if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So he says, you need to know, you need to have these instructions on how to behave yourself in the house of God. First and Second Timothy and Titus are three books that are written to pastors. Now, some books, you know, are written to the saints at Corinth, for instance. They're written to all Christians, including the pastor. These three books are specifically written to tell us, as pastors, how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of the Lord. And, of course, the principles apply for the people in the congregation as well. So, Timothy, are you going to do this? Are you going to follow orders if you're going to be a good soldier? you're going to follow orders. And verse 4, it says that you might please him, following orders that we might please the Lord. Please the Lord. I think sometimes we can be tempted to please our peers, much more than we are concerned about pleasing the Lord. Well, I can't just, you know, follow those orders, Lord, because that will get my pastor friend upset with me, or that will get somebody in the church upset with me. Well, Timothy, you best get out of the ministry if that's the way you're going to handle it. Timothy didn't handle it that way, neither did Paul. Unfortunately, there's a lot of pastors today aren't reading these books, I guess, or at least they're not discerning. I don't know what's going on, but there seems to be an awful lot of apostasy that is flooding into our local churches in recent days. But if you're a good soldier, good soldiers defend, good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers want to please Him. He says here that please Him who has chosen you to be a soldier. What a tremendous privilege that we would be chosen of God, of all the people in the world to have this responsibility. Well, Timothy, he says you better You better take it and you better listen. He writes to him, verse number one, he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. That's so interesting. Chapter one I'm looking at. He didn't say, hey, my good old buddy, Timothy, how are you today? I thought I'd drop you a note. They were pretty good friends. No, he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. This is really serious, Timothy. And I know we've been good friends for a long time, but I got a message from God for you, so you better listen to it. Well, he uses the example of a soldier, and then he uses the example of an athlete. Now, the thing about athletes is they have a training program, and that's what it's talking about here, back in Hebrews 5, verse number 14, when it says they have our senses exercise to discern. The training program, as I said, is much more than accumulating a head knowledge of a whole lot of Bible facts in a Bible college for four years. It's much more than that. We need to have our senses exercise so that we can discern between what is good and what is evil. Now it says here that he needs to, as an athlete, strive. That word is twice in this verse, strive. To strive is to put in a great effort to achieve something. And so he says here that you need to strive, you need to strive to please him who has chosen you to be a soldier. And he says here in verse number five, and if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. You've got to go for the rules. If you're going to run the race, you've got to stay within the lines on the track. You've got to go by the rules. And the Lord has given us a lot of rules here in 1 and 2 Timothy and the book of Titus for that case. And those rules are there to tell us how to behave in the house of the Lord. So he says you need to be a good soldier. They're defending, like Jude said, earnestly contending for the faith. Then to be a good athlete, there's a lot of preparation work to be a good athlete and a lot of skill and a lot of exercise. And then the third example he uses here is that of a farmer. When I was a young lad, probably around 10 years of age, I used to go in the summertime down to my uncle's farm down near the Ottawa area and I would help them on the farm, and I found out that farm work was not as much fun as I thought it was going to be. My picture was, oh, wow, I get to ride on the back of that horse, and I'll get to ride that tractor and drive it around, and that'll be a lot of fun. Well, yeah, there's quite a bit more to it than that. We're up very, very early in the morning out there getting the cows, bringing them in, milking them. Back then we didn't have milking machines, you milked them by hand. And then there's all those gutters have to be cleaned out where these cows, you know, you got to get that manure out of there. That's not what I had in mind when I thought I was going to my uncle's farm. Then you're up early in the morning, you work after you get the milking done, you got a few minutes to have breakfast, then you're out there in the field all day sweating. And it's just a lot of work and a lot of hours, and you go to bed at the end of the night, you're tired. Well, he says, you gotta be like a good soldier, you gotta be like an athlete, and you gotta be like a farmer. They work hard, they work long. And really, you know, I think the farmers, if it wasn't for the farmers, we wouldn't have anything to eat. And I don't think they get the respect that they deserve. So if you're looking for respect because you're a pastor, well, you're probably not gonna get what you're looking for. Oh, you'll get respect from the few who understand what you're doing and what God has you doing. Anyway, he says to young Timothy here, he says, now you consider, verse 7, consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Consider it. You stop and think about this, Timothy, and the Lord will give you understanding in all things. if you will do the work of a farmer and be the skillful person that an athlete is, and be a good soldier defending, and if you're going to be strong, as it says here in verse number one, be thou strong, then you're going to be eating what you need to eat spiritually, and you're going to be exercising that is exercising those senses to discern both good and evil. Consider all that, Timothy, consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things." And understanding is a byproduct of doing those things that we need to be doing in the order of a good soldier, a good athlete, and a good farmer. Then down to verse 9, he says, Timothy, you better be prepared for a little bit of trouble. He said, I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even under bonds. But the word of God is not bound. He said, I suffer trouble as an evildoer. Paul was not an evildoer. All he did was try to help people with the truth, but these days, Like then, if you try to help people with the truth, people don't want the truth. They want you to send them some sweet little words from the pulpit that will just verify that what they're living, how they're living in sin is okay. But he said, you know, you might even end up in bonds. He ended up in prison. But he says, the word of God is not bound, therefore I endure all things, he said. The word of God is not bound. I've read the last chapter and sometimes it gets a little rough on the, way through here, but I've read the last chapter. Things turn out pretty good for those of us who love the Lord. When we get down to verse number 15, and that's a pretty familiar verse, he says, you need to study, you need to study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now study, show thyself approved unto God. There's that word, workman. We got a lot of work to do. that needeth not to be ashamed." Oh, here it's so important, rightly dividing the word of truth, so important. Well, he says, study, study to show thyself approved, rightly dividing the word, but then he said there's some words you need to shun, verse 60, not just studying, but also shunning, In verse 16, he says, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker. The word actually means like a cancer, he says, who concerning the truth, and he names these people, Hymenaeus and Phileas, concerning the truth, they have erred, And they are overthrowing the faith of some, he says here in verse number 18. Now Timothy says you've got to be prepared to stop these vain babblers. What is a babbler? Well, one who is errant concerning the truth. The Bible says the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, 1 Timothy 3.15. He says in 1 Timothy 3, 4, the Lord says that he would have all saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The problem, he says, in 1 Timothy 6 and 5, there's going to be some men who are destitute of the truth. In 2 Timothy 3, 8, he talked about men who resist the truth. In 2 Timothy 4 and 4, he says there's going to be those who turn away their ears from the truth. Well, once again, you think that pastoring is going to be a simple little thing. No, there's going to be some problems like that. And Titus, as a matter of fact, which, as we've said, also has to do with how to behave in the local church, he says that there's many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped because they are teaching things they ought not to teach. Now, Timothy, you want to do that? You want to be a pastor? You know, sometimes we think being a pastor, well, I just got a nice office over here, and I got a desk and a telephone, and everybody's going to love me. No, not going to be that way. And there's going to be some who are going to overthrow the faith of some, and they need to be stopped. Their mouths must be stopped. Part of the responsibility of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Well, Paul's writing to Timothy, and he's giving him the facts about the whole thing. But these things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. And we need to be admonished in these things, because they're written here for us. Well, we're going to get into the next chapter. In chapter 1, it says, this think. Chapter 2, it says, this be. And in chapter 3, we'll look at it in our next broadcast, it says, this know. Verse one says, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Well, they've come. We're there. We're going to talk about Paul's instructions to young Timothy in the age of apostasy.