is where we'll be turning again this morning. I know some of you were absent last week. Some of the youth were absent last week, but we're still going to have a few questions this morning from 2 Timothy 2, the first half of it. That was what we covered last week. So we'll begin there. So without looking at your Bibles, we'll ask you a few questions here, so raise your hand if you want to, if you're ready to give an answer. Starts here at verse three, thou therefore endure hardness as a what of Jesus Christ? Good soldier. Good soldier, that is correct. 2 Timothy 2 verse 4, no man that does this entangleth himself. Woreth, no man that woreth, that's correct, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And then next question's from the next verse. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive in this way. Carrie. Lawfully. Very good. Go down to verse nine. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but this is not bound." Lizzie Messer. The Word of God. The Word of God is not bound. And then last one from verse 13. If we believe not, yet he does this. Maria. Abideth faithful. Abideth faithful. Yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. Very good. All right, so this morning then we're going to cover verses 14 through 26. We'll cover the second half of this, but just for the context, we'll read the entire chapter again this morning. So 2 Timothy 2. Starting at verse 1, thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. We talked a little bit about that verse last time, a different translation of that particular. Calvin commented on this. The husband might read, the husbandman that would partake of the fruits must first labor, fitting with those other verses there before it. Verse seven, then, consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. That's really the central message of Paul. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. And verse 14, of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat, as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying, the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. We'll return then to verse 14 and start there. We're going to see the same theme throughout this particular, this half of the chapter a number of times, as Paul warns against these false teachers. So there's some repetition here. Of these things, put them in remembrance. That phrase, in remembrance, we are a forgetful people. We're prone to, we need to be reminded many times, we see that as we read through the Old Testament, we read through God's dealings with his people back then. They would learn a lesson, they would forget it, they would learn a lesson, forget it, and it was, at times it could get a little bit repetitive. You wonder how these people could be so So foolish, need to be taught these things over and over and over again, but we're the same way. We are forgetful and we've seen that as we look through, as we've, with the youth, gone through Timothy. We see this in 1 Timothy 4 verse 6, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine. We saw this earlier in 2 Timothy 1. Paul calling to remembrance the unfamed faith that was in Timothy, so he's remembering that in 2 Timothy. We see that here in these verses, we see that in Peter. 2 Peter 1 verse 12, wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth. So those are things we need to take to heart as well. We don't read this once and say, well, that's, I've done my duty. I've learned this one time. We need to be returning to these things over and over and over again, dwelling on them, meditating on them. So put these things in remembrance, charging them, these faithful men who were mentioned in verse two, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also, charging them before the Lord that they strive not to words, not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." And those words of no profit, words to no profit, we'll see those, again, repeated multiple times here in this chapter. And we've seen this earlier as well. I'm going to turn to a couple of verses in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, verse 4. 1 Timothy 1 verse 4, Paul tells Timothy, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. And also 1 Timothy 6 verse 4. Talking about the really the qualifications of these false teachers. What are their characteristics? He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions, being primarily interested in these questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself." So we see that repeated, these strifes about words. I think our modern example in this would be social media. You see people arguing endlessly over questions and bringing up controversies, and that seems to be all that they're interested in. They're really just interested in the next controversy. They're not really interested in the truth. We're not just here to pick on other people. We're focused on ourselves and our own godliness. Those are things we need to be careful of in our own walk as well. We're not just interested in questions for the sake of questions. It's good and right to ask questions. We need to be searching the scriptures. We need to examine our own motivations for those questions that we ask and our conversation before God. And he goes on then into verse 15. Study, and we talked about that a little bit, I believe that was last time. studying, meditating on these things, 2 Timothy 2, verse 7, consider what I say. Study these things, study to show thyself approved unto God. That's a reminder of the trust, the trust that a teacher has, trust as in something that's been given to them and trusted to them. the position of teaching others, whether that's a teacher in the church as an elder, a pastor, a teacher, Sunday school teacher, or in your own family as a teacher of your children, or even as someone who's counseling others. We don't do those things for ourselves. That's something that's entrusted to us by God. And so when we teach, We should remember that that's who we're ultimately accountable to. We're accountable to God for the things that we teach. So we're to study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Calvin, in his commentary on that phrase, rightly dividing the word of truth, he gave the example or commented on giving food to young children. Pick the right food, food that is of the right type for them for that particular, for their age. Not that we don't teach the entire word of God as a teacher, we don't hide the truth, but we need to, as a teacher, have wisdom in bringing the word of God, dividing this up rightly and appropriately as a teacher. Verse 16, in this repetition that we see here, repetition that we need, I think that's what we see when a particular teaching is repeated, it's because we need it, because God knows what we need. Shun profane and vain babblings. Strong's definition of the word there, translated vain babblings, empty soundings, just a, there's meaninglessness to these words, these profane and vain babblings. For they will increase unto more ungodliness. And we see there the connection, we've used the phrase bad teaching, bad doctrine leads to bad living. Our doctrine is important, what we believe, what we teach is important. we're shunning these things not just for their own sake, but because also they will lead us into ungodly living, the fruit of a diseased tree is going to be diseased as well. That is why we need to hold fast to the fundamentals of the faith. We need to hold fast to the true faith, the scriptural, biblical faith, biblical teaching. not seek after the teachings of men. These false teachings will lead unto more ungodliness. And then verses 17 and 18, just going over some of the additional characteristics, some of what we see from these false teachings. Their word will eat as doth the canker of, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. This word canker, cancer would be our modern word there. The Greek word is actually the root of the word gangrene. Some of the commentators argued a little bit over was he meaning gangrene, was he meaning, is the meaning more cancer? Really when you think about it, the two, the progression of those two diseases as this picture is given of how false teaching grows. The picture is very similar. Gangrene is the death of tissue. When tissue dies, it gets infected. That infection then spreads to the rest of the body. A person becomes septic and they die from that. Someone has a cancer, if it's not treated, it grows and spreads to the rest of the body in the same way. Eventually can cause that person to die. And so the picture here is really the same, whether, regardless of the meaning of that, the specific, which example is better, though I think they're both good examples. False teaching can begin with something that seems relatively minor, but it grows into other areas. We see that in some of the teachings about the inspiration of scriptures is, can we take every doctrine here as everything that's taught as the word of God? Someone might pick out some little area and say, well, this is really kind of a minor point. We don't have to hold to that. You start down that slippery slope though, that leads into other areas. Well, if this area is not true, What about this other one? Well, I don't like this particular doctrine. You move on into greater and greater error. So that false teaching will grow. He mentions two people, Hymenaeus and Philetus. Hymenaeus is someone we saw mentioned in 1 Timothy 1, verse 18. 18 through 20. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest swore a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrecked. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, who might have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. We've been introduced to those, one of those two men there. And here in verse 18, we see the specific false teaching that those men were holding to. Says, who concerning the truth have erred, saying, the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. The commentators that I read Their thoughts on this were that those men were teaching that the resurrection was the resurrection of the spirit. We've been given this new life. That's the resurrection, and that's all we have to look forward to. That's all we have. There is no future resurrection. We're gonna turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Read a somewhat extensive passage on this. 1 Corinthians 1.15, we see the importance, the centrality that Paul places on the resurrection, not just the resurrection, not just the new life that we've been given, but the future resurrection as well, resurrection of the body. 1 Corinthians 15, beginning at verse 12, and we're gonna read through verse 20. 1 Corinthians 15, 12. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ. whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins. Then they also which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Paul is making the point here in 1 Timothy, and as we've seen here in Corinthians as well, that's an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. As Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, we're made new, we're made alive, the curse has been lifted. We're no longer faced with that curse. that was pronounced in Genesis, but we will someday live again. We will rise and live again. And I'm going to turn briefly to Romans 6 verse 4 as well. Romans 6.4, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. That was a central doctrine, a central teaching, an essential one, and those men had turned away from it and were overthrowing the faith of some. They were teaching something that was leading people astray. They were condemned for that, as we saw there in 1 Timothy. They were given over to Satan. Verse 19, then. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And those are certainly glorious, glorious words, very comforting words, the Lord knoweth them that are his, should be a great comfort to us. We're actually going to turn to numbers to Those two phrases there, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, those are references to events from the book of Numbers. We'll turn to Numbers 16, verse five. This is in reference to Korah, the rebellion of Korah. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, these men had rebelled against Moses. They said, from verse three, they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto him, said unto them, you take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy. every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord." So these men are really questioning, really questioning the Word of God. They're questioning whether this Moses was truly the servant of God, whether he was the one that God had given them, that God had selected for them to be his spokesman, to be really the apostle of God to them, to the children of Israel during this time. And so they begin this, they start this rebellion against him. And we're gonna read these two verses here, if I can find my place again. Number 16, five, and then also verse 26. I'll start back at verse four. When Moses heard it, he fell upon his face and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company saying, even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him. Even unto him whom he hath chosen will cause, will he cause to come near unto him. The Lord will show who are his. The Lord knows who are his. And then verse 26 as well. Again beginning verse one verse before that verse 25 and Moses rose up and went into Dathan and Abiram and the elders of Israel followed him and he spake unto the congregation saying Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest you be consumed and in all their sin. So the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. It's really the same example. Using the example there from the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, God knows who are his, and we need to remove ourselves from them. We need to separate from those false teachers, lest we partake of the judgment that God will send on them. Moving on then into verse 20, verses 20 and 21. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified in meat for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. This great house, Calvin talks about this at some length, the visible church. And the visible church was his interpretation of this particular phrase. And a great house and a visible church are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, what are these? Those false teachings and those false works. We're looking there at sanctification. That's the sanctification of the believer. We are to separate ourselves from those things more and more. We're to live more and more into God. He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. We've talked before about the work of the saint. Our work isn't something that just happened once, and then we can rest in that, we can be indolent or lazy in that. We are called to work daily, and that involves both our learning theology, learning the Bible, learning the teachings of scripture, but also in our day-to-day living. Those are both areas we must be working in daily to seek to identify the sin that's still in us through through the strength, through the work of God, through the work of Christ. Again, this isn't something we do ourselves, but it's something we do through the strength of God, through Christ. So, prepared unto every good work. Now, verse 22, then, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. really just talking more about purging ourselves from these. We're fleeing these youthful, telling Timothy, flee these youthful lusts. We tend to, that particular verse, youthful lusts, tends to be applied specifically to sexual sins. He's not referring, though, specifically to that. He's referring to all kinds of youthful lusts and desires. Calvin, again, I had a number of thoughts this morning from, was able to draw from Calvin. Talks about the impatience of youth, impetuous desires. Rushing forward rashly is another phrase that he used. Those are things we are to be, Timothy was to avoid, certainly for the younger people in this group. And the same is true for us as older people as well. There are areas where we're impatient or have these impetuous desires. We're to flee from those things. And follow instead after righteousness, after faith, after charity or love. after peace, with them that call out of the Lord out of a pure heart. And again, repeating these, his warnings, verse 23, foolish, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. They lead to strifes, lead to quarrels. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, must not be a fighter. That's not our goal in life, is not to be a fighter. But be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And that phrase there, be gentle unto all men, turn briefly here to Matthew 12, verse 19, really reminded of the description of Christ, the description of the Messiah, as he quotes Isaiah, Matthew 12, verse 19. And we'll back up a little to verse 17. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry, nor shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flack shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. That is, as a teacher, and this applies not just to, again, not just to those with formal teaching teaching services, teaching ministries in the church, but to anyone who is a teacher. Parents, older brother to a younger sibling. Our goal is to be gentle, to not strive. Our goal is not to create arguments, but to seek after the truth, to encourage people, to try to correct them in love. As it says here, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. It's a good reminder that it's not our words specifically that lead to that change of heart or change of mind. It's of God. It's God that gives them that repentance. That's what we're seeking when we talk to people, when we teach, when we instruct those, as it says here, that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves, Strong's Concordance mentions that particular phrase, recover themselves, the the word that's translated there, recover themselves, become sober again, to regain one's senses. That's what we're seeking. That God would give them this repentance, that they would come to their senses again. that they would stop following after these false teachings, the teachings that are of the devil, the teaching of Satan, who are taken captive by him at his will. And again, Strong gives an alternative to do his will. Taken captive by the devil to do his will. One thing we talk about in our youth Sunday school, the context is always important. We don't want to take just one piece of a verse or one verse and develop an entire doctrine out of that that's opposed to what's found elsewhere in the scripture. We could read this and say the devil is taking people captive at his will. He's in charge and he has some power over people that God doesn't necessarily, or that God doesn't have. The devil is the ruler of the world, and God's the ruler of heaven. That would be an incorrect teaching, an incorrect understanding of that. The devil doesn't work independent of God. We see that clearly in the book of Job. The devil is not able to do anything to Job outside of God's will and plan there. I think that certainly this phrase here, taken captive by him to do his will, I think would be a very reasonable understanding of that as well. And so that is, as we've gone through this second half of Second Timothy, we see this repeated, this refrain repeated over and over again about recognizing false teachers. avoiding those teachings ourselves, and how we are, in these last couple of verses, how we are to do that, we're to do this gently, patiently, I would say recognizing that it's, we're not doing this in our own power, we're not doing this through our own strength, but we're doing it through the power that comes from God, with the goal not of making someone look foolish or embarrassing them, but of trying to bring them to repentance to correct them that they might glorify God. Amen. Let's pray then, and you'll be excused. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Again, for your Word, we thank you for the care that you show to us in these repeated warnings, these repeated reminders, to avoid false teachings, to seek after that true faith, to seek the Scriptures, to seek your holiness, and to do these things, to do all things patiently and humbly, knowing that, but for the grace of God, there go I. We ask that you would bless us, that you would help us to be free of these errors. We know, Lord, that we will not come to a full understanding of you until we are glorified, but we pray that you would increase our understanding, our knowledge of you, and that we would glorify you more and more through our lives. We ask for your blessings on us. We pray for Pastor Kimbrough in this next hour, and that you would give him wisdom and boldness to proclaim your truth. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.