Good morning. Oh, that's good. Will you bow your heads in prayer with me as we begin? God, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. We thank you, God, that you have revealed yourself to us in your Word and in your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the truth. God, we thank you and we praise you that you Give us the truth, that You lead us in the truth. God, I ask that You would meet us in Your Word today as we study, as we look to Your truth. God, I'm aware and I confess to You my own weakness, that I'm a jar of clay as we just saw in Your Word. And I confess that no good will come now in these moments apart from Your Holy Spirit. And I just ask, God, that You would fill me, that You would speak through me. God, that You would fill this place, that You would open up our hearts and our minds to receive the truth of Your Word even now as we come to You. And we ask and we pray that You would use Your Word to change the way that we live. And, God, that we would honor You and glorify You even now in these moments. We ask this and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, welcome to the guests and newcomers that we have with us today. I'm glad that you're here worshiping with us. I want to start sharing a story of a former youth student. I used to be a youth pastor at a different church and There was a student in our youth group who moved to another part of the country, and I'll just call him Toby if that's alright, that's not his name, but we'll call him Toby for anonymity. Toby moved to another part of the country, and a few months after he moved, he contacted me and he said, you know, I'm really struggling with same-gender attraction. And he was struggling with whether or not God said that it was wrong, or if you could be involved in same-gender relationships as a Christian. And I was just heartbroken for him. So I began sharing the truth with him, but being long-distance was difficult. It was hard. So over the course of several months, I shared the truth and we had lots of long conversations and I tried to convince him of the truth, but he refused to listen. And there were two reasons why he refused to listen to the truth, and they're related to each other. One was because he started listening to so-called Christian... teachers, by reading articles and blogs and websites that were all saying that same gender relationships are not sinful, that God doesn't condemn them, and that anyone who taught otherwise was misinterpreting the scriptures. Now, the second reason he wouldn't listen anymore was related to this, and it was because of his own sinful desires. It was those sinful desires that he was struggling with that led him to seek out teachers that would tell him what he wanted to hear. In the end, he was only pleased with teachers who taught what conformed to what he already believed. So finally, he rejected the things that I was trying to teach him from God's Word, and he turned away from the truth. This is what happens when God's word is no longer given priority by God's pastors and by God's people. It's absolutely devastating in the lives of people and in the life of the church. What does God want us to do in response to this? Well, turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 5. We're taking a break from our series in the book of Acts today, and we're going to be looking at the priority of preaching, the mission that God has given to the local church to faithfully preach His Word. Look with me at 2 Timothy chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. and follow along as I read our text for today. Paul is speaking to Timothy and Paul says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. The message for us this morning focuses on one vital truth. The local church must be committed to the faithful preaching of God's Word. You and I must be committed to the faithful preaching of God's Word. And in our passage today, God gives us the mandate, the method, and the motive for faithfully preaching His Word. I'll say that again. He gives us the mandate, the method, and the motive for preaching His Word. Now, with a sentence like that, I think that there's probably a little bit inside of me that's like a Baptist preacher, right? Rob always likes to make fun of me for all the alliteration, but I love it. So God gives us the mandate, the method, and the motive for preaching His Word. That's what we'll see today. But before we dig into our text, we need to do a little bit of background information to help put our passage into the context of the book as a whole. At this point, Paul is in prison in Rome. He's awaiting execution. After 30 years of faithful ministry, he's about to be killed for his faith. And he knows that his time on earth is short. In fact, these are our last recorded words, recorded words of Paul. Look with me at verses six and seven. It says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. So what we have in this letter are Paul's final instructions to Timothy. He's passing the baton. From now on, it's Timothy who has the race to run. It's Timothy who has the battle to fight. He is to carry on the work. Just like Joshua followed Moses and Elisha followed Elijah, now Timothy is following Paul. And that pattern continues today as we continue to pass the baton of faith to the next generation. You see, there's false teachings circulating in Ephesus. That's where Timothy is at this point. So Paul is eager to make sure that Timothy is faithful in the ministry of the Word. In chapter 1, Paul tells Timothy to guard the good deposit entrusted to him. Guard the Word, the truth that he's been given. In chapter 2, Paul tells them to take the truth and entrust it to other faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So grab the picture. Paul has instructed Timothy, and now he's telling Timothy, instruct other faithful men who will be able to go and instruct other faithful men. This is the pattern as we pass on the truth, the Word, to generation after generation. And then, later in chapter 2, Paul tells him, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, rightly handling the word of truth. That's verse 15. Finally, in chapter 3, Paul tells him to continue to live in the truth of the scriptures that he's been taught and instructed in since he was a little boy. The Scriptures that made him wise for salvation, that are breathed out by God and are useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. That's verses 14 through 17. So Paul reminds him that the Scriptures are written by God. They're without error, and they're sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. It's the Scriptures that mature people in the faith. Now, with that context in mind, let's see what Paul's instructions to Timothy are regarding preaching, what God has to say about preaching. First, God gives us the mandate to preach His Word. God gives us the mandate to preach His Word. We see this in verses 1 and 2. Look there with me as I read them again. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word." This is a weighty charge. Preaching must be a matter of extraordinary importance. Why do we know that preaching is a matter of such importance? How do we know that it's so important? Anyone? Yeah, the truth is proclaimed. That's what changes lives. You're right. What else? Why is it so important? What in this text, in this verse, makes us see that it's so important? Certainly it's important because God is commanding it, absolutely. But look at what is happening here. These are Paul's final instructions. He's passing the torch and he says, I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, and His appearing, and by His kingdom, preach the word. This is serious because the command is given in the presence of God, in the presence of Jesus Christ, who will one day appear to judge all people and establish His kingdom. This is what makes weddings such solemn occasions. Months of planning go in to the wedding, right? The flowers, the dresses, the colors, which by the way, never have ordinary names. It's not blue, it's periwinkle. It's not red, it's crimson. I don't understand this. It's just the way that it is. The colors are strange. So you go, you do all this planning for the wedding. You're getting excited about it. You plan the food, and the songs, and the scriptures, and the food, everything. And the day finally comes, and the bride, she takes hours getting herself ready. She puts on a beautiful dress, she does her hair, she does her makeup, she paints her nails. The groom, he prepares himself because he knows he's supposed to look his best. This is one of the most important days of their life. All of that preparation is done for one reason. This is the day they're going to stand before God, take their vows, making their commitment to each other in His presence. That's what makes it such a solemn occasion. That's why the pastor begins the ceremony with a prayer. God is being called in as a witness and it's God who will one day evaluate them and reward them for how they treated each other in their marriage. Their faithfulness to each other and to God in that calling. That covenant of marriage, that's what makes it so solemn. The same reason, for the same reason this charge to Timothy is solemn, because it's being made in God's presence. God is being called in as a witness to this. So the command to preach the word that follows is vitally important. It's weighty, it's solemn, it's never to be undertaken flippantly. And what's Timothy commanded to do? What's he commanded to do? Preach the Word, right? Who can tell me what the Word is? What's the Word, kids? What is the Word when you see it? Jesus is the Word, yes, certainly. He's the way and the truth and the life. It's the Bible. It's it. Yes, it's primarily Christ, absolutely. That's what He's been called. to preach. That's what Paul has been talking about through this letter. God is commanding the preaching of His Word. It's not our Word, it's His Word. The Scriptures are the source of truth and the source of authority in preaching. All we do is communicate the Word which God has entrusted to us in Scripture. This is the essence of what preaching is. We submit ourselves to the Scriptures and faithfully proclaim it to God's Word. So Paul said in our reading from 2 Corinthians 4-2, we read this today, Paul says we refuse to tamper with God's Word. We refuse to tamper with God's Word, but by the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Now Paul is charging Timothy to carry out this same great responsibility to preach the Word in the sight of God, knowing that one day he will stand before Jesus Christ and be evaluated and rewarded accordingly. And that's why James tells us, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Not that they have a different standard, but by that standard they'll be judged with greater strictness. Pastors have been solemnly charged in the presence of God with this command, preach the word. That's why we do it. So the first application for us this morning is simply to make preaching our priority in this church. It's so important to God, and so it must be so important to us. God is committed to it, and so we need to be committed to it. Now, it sounds easy enough, but God doesn't just give us the mandate, the command to preach His word, and then say, well, go and do it however you feel like it. He doesn't say, well, just have at it then, whatever you think is fine with me. He gives us the mandate, but then He also gives us the method. God gives us the method for preaching His Word, and we see this in verse 2. Look there with me as I read it again. Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Now, Paul is elaborating on this command to preach the Word by giving Timothy further instructions for how he's supposed to do it. God says, be ready in season and out of season, in good times and bad times. In other words, Timothy's to preach regardless of what people's feelings are or what the circumstances of the culture might be. whatever he finds himself in. This is simultaneously a command against laziness, but also against fear of preaching God's Word because of the culture around us. You know, right now, social justice is a popular issue in our culture, and so it's easy to preach on that particular subject. But if you try preaching about how you should educate your children, you'll have some pushback. People might start getting grumpy. In Canada, you can be arrested for preaching against gay marriage. The point is, like Timothy, pastors must preach the word regardless of the sentiment of the times. Well, what if people don't want to hear it? Preach the word. What if people start getting upset with me? What if they leave the church? Preach the word. What if I could be arrested for it? What if I could suffer for it? Preach the word. Pastors cannot waver on the word of God because the message is one of life and death. So God says when it comes to preaching my word, be ready in season and out of season. He goes on to say reprove, rebuke and exhort. Now these terms sound similar and they have similar definitions. We can easily get them confused. So to try to help us see what these words mean, I'll use Toby as an example. When Toby and I were talking and I was using God's word to expose the lies that he believed and convince him that same gender relationships were wrong, I was reproving him. When I was warning him of the dangers associated with his sin and telling him that he needed to stop what he was doing, I was rebuking him. When I was sharing the truth with him from God's Word and urging him to resist temptation and to live a pure life, I was exhorting him. You can see that there's a lot of overlap between these three different terms, and they can all happen at one time in the same conversation. But there's a logical sequence to them. We reprove people who are in error, We rebuke people who won't listen, and for those who will listen, we exhort them to follow God's Word. And now we're beginning to see why people don't like preaching. The culture reacts strongly against us, but these are the commands for the preacher. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort is what we must be ready to do in season and out of season. Now these commands, they loosely mirror what we saw in chapter 3, verse 16. for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, thoroughly equipped for every good work." When we put these two things together, we see that the goal, the purpose of preaching is that people will be built up in their faith. As we read in Jeremiah today, preachers that are not faithful to God's Word do not profit God's people at all, Jeremiah says in 23 verse 32. Preaching is about discipleship. It's about helping people come to the fullness of maturity in Christ. So how do we do this? Verse 2 says, with complete patience and teaching. Although we must speak boldly, we also must speak graciously and be patient with people in their responses to the Word. We need to trust in the slow work of God. You see, the commands to reprove and rebuke and exhort, they do not give us a license to be harsh with people. That's not what this is about. We correct people with gentleness, hoping that God might grant them repentance. It's not the force of our words, but the power of the Holy Spirit that produces fruit when God's Word is being faithfully preached. Do you understand that? There is such encouragement in that for us as Christians. It is not the force of our words, but the power of the Holy Spirit that changes lives when we faithfully preach God's Word. We need to be patient with people as God moves in their hearts and leads them to greater maturity in faith. Growth takes time. But this word patience, it carries the idea of forbearance, of long-suffering when someone wrongs you. What's the idea here? Well, someone may react strongly when they're reproved or rebuked or exhorted. They may not like it and they may react strongly. Our response to that needs to be one of patiently bearing with them. We don't respond in kind with anger, but with patience. The word complete here translates the word all. It stresses that we need the greatest amount of patience we can possibly have when we're preaching the word, when we're sharing the truth with people. We need patience for two things. Patience because people grow in the faith slowly. So we need to be patient with them as God slowly matures them in the faith. But we also need to be patient when people respond. negatively to the truth of God's Word. We preach the Word with complete patience, but we also do it with complete teaching. I say complete teaching here because the adjective describes both words, not just the patience, but also the teaching. The teaching should be complete. What is complete teaching? Teaching here is not just referring to the act of teaching, but it also includes and refers to the doctrine, the content of the teaching that's actually being given. We teach the whole counsel of God, the complete teaching, all of scripture, which is useful for equipping and maturing God's people. Now imagine with me for a moment, imagine with me that I'm going to build a house. The thought scares me, but imagine that we are building a house. I buy the land, I get the materials, I make a blueprint, everything's ready. But now suppose with me for a moment that I hire a lazy contractor. Lazy contractor. He has all the necessary tools, all the knowledge, all the experience that he needs to build my house. There's just one problem. And that problem is, he's not working. How much progress do you think is going to be made on my house? None. No progress will be made on my house because he's refusing to work. Now suppose with me for a second that I somehow get this lazy contractor to start working, but he decides it would be easier for him to cut a few corners. And so instead of digging down and laying a solid foundation, he just throws some concrete and puts a light slab right on top of the ground. And when he's doing the electrical work, he doesn't take his time and he doesn't really ground any of the wires. And when he does the plumbing, he doesn't make sure that any of the connections are really sealed or solid. How do you think my house is gonna fare? Kiara's like, absolutely. Now I'm no contractor, right? So for all the appearances in my view, it looks like it's coming along just fine. But the reality of it is, is that my house is not going to last very long because he's cut corners and done shoddy work. He didn't build it properly. Just like that house won't be built if the contractor refuses to work, God's people will not be built up in their faith if pastors refuse to faithfully preach God's word. And just like the contractor, if we take shortcuts, if we go the easy way in our preaching, if we don't labor in our study under God's word, hearing from him, if we avoid the hard work of patiently reproving and rebuking and exhorting in all seasons, then we may get along okay for a while, but ultimately the household of God is going to suffer. His people will not be built up, they will not be established in the faith, but they'll be unstable, vulnerable to every wind of doctrine that comes along. The application here is simply this, the priority and commitment of preaching God's Word is lost when preachers, when pastors don't faithfully proclaim God's Word. So we need to be committed to obeying this mandate to faithfully preach the Word. And we need to do it according to God's methods. We've seen the mandate and the method, but God also gives us the motive for preaching the word. We see it in verses three and four, look there. The Bible says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Paul now gives us the reason why Timothy has to focus on faithfully preaching God's word. He says, for the reason. He grounds these previous commands. Why does Timothy need to do these things? Not simply because this is what the ministry of the word demands, it does, but also because there is a tendency in people who profess faith to stop listening to God's word. Paul gives us some specifics about the off season that he just mentioned. He says, there's going to come a time when people will no longer endure sound teaching. You can expect this. So don't be caught off guard by it. This has been an issue in the church and it will continue to be an issue in the church until Christ returns. That's why the charge is given to preach the word in and out of season. Now note the contrast here in this text. What they won't do is endure sound teaching. What they will do is accumulate teachers to suit their own passions. They will hand-pick for themselves teachers that match their own sinful desires. And this is really easy for us to do nowadays, because of the internet, because of technology, because there's blogs, because there's podcasts, and all these things are available to us, we can easily pick and choose the things that we want to listen to. And this is both good and bad. It's good because we have access to great preaching, but it's bad because you also have access to poor preaching. What's going on here? These people have made themselves the measure of who should teach them and what that teaching should include. Rather than using God's word as a judge of the teachers, they use their own subjective tastes. They don't listen first and then determine if what they've just heard is the truth like the Bereans do. They decide in advance what they want to hear and then they go and find teachers who will scratch where they itch. Note the emphasis here. Hear me on this. The emphasis in this text is not on the false teaching itself. It's not on the false teachers themselves. It's on the people who choose to listen to it. They're pleased with teachers who in the end teach whatever matches their evil desires. What's the result? On the one hand, they turn away from listening to the truth, and on the other, they wander off into myths. They exchange the truth of God for a lie. Myths here signify what isn't true, what lacks reality. It's the opposite of the truth, underscoring the fact that they turn away from the words of Scripture, just exactly like the former youth group student had done. But despite this fact, Timothy is to continue preaching and not take his lead from what the people want to hear. So let me ask you a question. How many of you in here like ice cream? I do too. But it's not my favorite, I'll be honest with you. I'm more of a chip guy. I like salty snacks. Are there any salty snack people in here? Who prefers the salty snack? So given the choice between the two, salty, me too. my salty brothers and sisters. But give me a warm brownie with that ice cream and I'm pretty much set though. That's good. What kind of snacks do you like? Kids, tell me what kind of snacks you like to eat. Chips? What kind of chips? Yeah, Doritos. Somebody said Wheat Thins, that's not a snack. Sorry. What else? I was talking to Avi earlier, she said cheese and nuts. What else? Garrett's popcorn. Oh, now you're talking. Absolutely. These are all good snacks. What do you suppose would happen if we ate nothing but cake and ice cream at every meal? I'd get sick of them. If it was possible, you'd be in trouble. And Mr. Pacer told me a story once about a girl who ate nothing but chicken nuggets, nothing else. When she was 15 years old, her parents had to rush her to the hospital because her life was on the line. What she thought was nourishing her was literally damaging her body. You see, people like snack food, we like cake and ice cream, but the nourishment that we need is in whole grains, it's in fruits, it's in vegetables, and Chick-fil-A. You're listening. We need to eat healthy food to have proper nourishment, or we damage our bodies. The same is true of us spiritually. What people need is sound doctrine. They need faithful preaching from God's Word, even if they themselves don't want it. Now, the best thing for Chicken Nugget Girl would have been for her parents to feed her healthy food, despite the fact that all she wanted to eat was chicken nuggets. There's an obvious parallel here with preaching in regards to the pastor teaching sound doctrine. Interestingly enough, this word sound can also be translated healthy. So literally, the pastor should be preaching healthy doctrine. The motivation here is nourishing people's souls so that they grow mature in the faith. This is the motivation for preaching. But let's focus for a moment on the responsibility of the congregation because they're the ones who are in focus in this text. There are people among Timothy's congregation that are abandoning healthy doctrine for cake and ice cream preaching. They're gathering teaches that want to give them what they want to hear. And the trouble is, is it does nothing to nourish their souls. We don't want to make the same mistake. The priority of God's Word is lost. Not only when pastors stop faithfully preaching, but also when the congregation stops listening to the Word of God, when they stop listening to faithful preaching. Every single one of us needs to be committed to receiving the Word when it's faithfully preached. We need to come to church with an appetite for God's Word, hungry for the truth that it contains, eager to submit our lives to it. And this might not be an easy thing to do because You might be used to eating cake preaching. It might not taste good at first because that's all you're used to. But here's the reality. The prophets are condemned in Jeremiah because they don't share God's Word. They fill the people with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to people who despise the Word of the Lord, it'll be okay with you. It's all right. To everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, to those who are in rebellion against God, the message of the false prophets was, no disaster will come upon you. You see, they hadn't stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and to hear His Word. They didn't pay attention. If they had, God says, if they had stood in My counsel, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and they would have turned them from their evil way, from the evil of their deeds. He goes on to say that God's word, God says, my word is like a fire. It's like a hammer. It shatters the rock. But these people, they've rejected my word. They don't preach my word. What they preach is their own words from their own heads, their own dreams and visions. God says, let the one who has my word preach my word faithfully. But these people weren't. And the result was people were going astray. So God says, they don't profit this people at all. So God says, don't listen to them. There's responsibilities on both sides here. The responsibility of the pastor to faithfully preach God's Word on the one hand, and on the other hand, the responsibility of God's people to listen to God's Word when it's faithfully preached. I'll conclude with verse 5. Paul turns his attention back to Timothy, and he gives him four more commands, which we're just going to fly through. He says, as for you, in contrast to the people who won't endure sound teaching, he says, as for you, always be sober-minded, one. Endure suffering, two. Do the work of an evangelist. Three. Fulfill your ministry. Four. The overall idea here, the picture here is one of perseverance. Timothy needs to persevere in accomplishing his ministry. And these four commands parallel the situation that he's facing in Ephesus. So while the people are being taken captive by false teaching, He needs to be sober-minded, clear-headed, hanging on to the truth, free from mental drunkenness at all times. While the people refuse to listen to the truth, while they will not endure sound doctrine, He needs to endure suffering for preaching the Word. This repeats a command he's been given twice already in this letter to suffer for the sake of the gospel. While the people are wandering off into myths, he needs to persevere in preaching the true gospel. Even though he labors in a situation that's evangelized, he's still to continue to preach the gospel. And finally, when people forsake his teaching to find teachers to suit their own passions, he needs to remain steadfast to fulfill the ministry that he's been called to. In other words, these things should spur him on to persevere in the ministry. John Stott was a pastor in England, and he says this in response to this passage. He says, the harder the times and the deafer the people, the clearer and more persuasive our proclamation must be. So what happens when God's Word is no longer given priority by pastors, no longer given priority by God's people? It devastates God's church. What does God want us to do in response to this? Preach the Word. Our church needs to be committed to faithfully preaching God's Word, faithfully listening to God's Word. God gives us the mandate He gives us the method, He gives us the motive to do it. When we all have our responsibilities, pastors need to be committed to faithfully preaching God's Word, in season and out of season, with complete patience and complete teaching, always ready, enduring all the trials associated with it, fulfilling the work that God has called them to. And God's people have their responsibilities too. They must be committed to receiving the truth when it's faithfully preached from God's Word. Will you bow your heads in prayer with me? Oh God, I pray for this young church. I pray for Gospel Fellowship Church, Lord. God, please help us to maintain our commitment throughout the years ahead to be faithful in the preaching of your word. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would guard us from growing lazy or fearful because of the prevailing culture of man. Strengthen us in your Holy Spirit and help us to persevere, God. May you be glorified and may we grow into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ as your Word is preached among us. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.