Good morning, everyone. This morning we will be continuing on in First Timothy, where we left off last week. But before we start, let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, we are grateful to be here this morning once again. Father, we're grateful that we have the opportunity to come because, Father, we recognize that on our own merit, we should not be allowed to come. We should not be allowed to come to sing your praises. We should not be allowed to come and bring our request before you. Father, we should not even be allowed to be present before you. We should be those who are cast out those who are separated, those who are bound to sin. But Father, we aren't because of what Christ has done for us. And so Father, we do come this morning and we come with joy and with rejoicing because of what Christ has done for us. He has washed us from our sins. He has given us a place before your throne. He has given us an inheritance. Father, He has given us so much more than we could even ask or imagine. So Father, we want to come this morning to rejoice in what He has done for us and to give thanks for what He has done for us. But Father, we also want to come to taste more. Father, to taste and see and therefore say that You are good. And so Father, that's why we turn to your word this morning is because we do want to taste and see more. We want to taste of the goodness of Christ. We want to see his glory and we want our hearts to be changed or molded so that we would say you are good. And so Father, as we turn to your word, I pray that that would happen this morning. Father, I pray that you would open our eyes so we could see the truths of Christ clearly in your word. Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts that we would rejoice in the things of Christ and be moved to worship Christ as we see him in your Word. Father, I pray that you would work on our will. Father, that you would bend our will away from ourselves and towards Christ as we meditate on your Word. Father, for that, we do need your spirit to be here. Father, our hearts on their own are dead and cold. So Father, I pray that you would fill us with your spirit according to your promise. Father, that you would be opening our eyes and changing our hearts through the power of your spirit. Father, I pray for myself especially. I pray that as I come to preach your word, that you would fill me with your spirit. Father, that the words I preach would be truly your words, that they would be true and glorious things of Christ, and that they would be beneficial to those who are listening. So Father, I pray that you would exalt Christ in our midst this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, so we left off last week in 2 Timothy chapter 3. We had finished 2 Timothy chapter 3. And so we're jumping into 2 Timothy chapter 4 this morning. But before we jump in, I want to go back and remember where we've been. So we started 2 Timothy with this summary statement. This is what I think the whole book is about. It's that 2 Timothy tells us that serving the gospel is going to be hard. It's going to be hard, but it will be worth it. Serving the gospel is hard, but it's always worth it. And so Paul's exhortation to Timothy is keep pressing in to Christ. And so we broke the book up into two halves. We said the first half of the book was looking mostly at Timothy, and Paul's looking at Timothy and encouraging Timothy and telling Timothy, in the midst of you having a hard time, This is what you need to remember. And so he challenges him to be strong in the gospel. And as we went through a book, we said there were six main exhortations, three in the first half, three in the second half. And so we had those first three exhortations that culminated with the third charge, which is, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Then the second half of the book, now Paul having encouraged Timothy to be strong in the gospel, tells him to be a servant of the gospel, keep going in what you've been appointed to do. And so we've had three charges in this half too. The first charge was, do your best to be one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. The second charge, which we looked at last week, was continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. That means that this morning we're ready to move into the third exhortation, the chief exhortation of the second half, and really the chief exhortation of the entire book. This is the climax of the book as we come to chapter four, verses one through five. And the third exhortation in the second half is this, preach the word. And so we went through, last week, this is where we ended, was we looked at, okay, we've got these three exhortations in the second half. I said we can kind of summarize them each in three words. The first exhortation is, know the word. Do your best to present yourself as one approved. Second exhortation is, use the word. All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. And so the third exhortation is gonna be this, preach the word, know the word, use the word, preach the word. So this morning, we're going to be in 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 5. So if you want to open your Bible, follow along with me, or I'll have the text up here on the screen. So 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 5. 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 endorse 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, fulfill your ministry. So as we look at 1 Timothy 4, verses one through five, this is gonna be my proposition, my main point. It's that faithful preaching is the most important thing an elder can do. Faithful preaching is the most important thing an elder can do. In fact, they have one supreme responsibility, preach the word. So as we go through this, I actually just wanna look at this and ask a bunch of questions about this passage. So we're gonna go through the four W's and an H, and then we're gonna add the H in again for fun. But, so I'm gonna ask who. There's people mentioned in this passage. And as we ask who, we're gonna see the importance of this charge. Then we're gonna ask what. What is the charge? We're gonna see the substance of the charge. What's the charge about? Unsurprisingly, that might be my longest point. But then we'll ask when. When is this charge going to happen, or when is this charge for, it's like the duration of the charge. Look at how, and the methods that we're going to use in this charge. We're gonna look at why. Why is Paul giving this charge? We'll see the reason for this charge. And then finally we'll return to how again, how we'll see the perseverance of this charge. And so we've got six points, I'll finish with a few applications at the end, so seven points this morning. Don't despair though, I actually don't think this is gonna be a, this very long message, but we'll go through each of these points pretty rapidly. So we'll start with two. Let's look at our passage and look at the people that are mentioned in the passage, the characters. So we come to 2 Timothy, I wanna jump into 2 Timothy 4, verses one through two. And it starts with this, I charge you. And so the first characters are obviously Paul and Timothy. Paul's looking at Timothy and says, here's my charge to you, Timothy. And so he's going to give him his charge. We've looked at this. This is the sixth major charge in the book, the culminating charge of the second half, and really the culminating charge of the book. But then he doesn't just say, I charge you. He keeps going. He says, I charge you in the presence of God. and of Christ Jesus. And so as Paul starts to make this charge, he starts to bring in witnesses. He says, these are other people that I'm going to have beside me as I make this charge. Witnesses to hear me charge you with this. And then he doesn't even start there. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. And then he starts describing who Jesus is. He's the one who is to judge the living and the dead. And he says, he's the one who's going to appear. He's the one who the kingdom belongs to. He 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. So as we look at this passage, we see there's several characters here, Paul and Timothy, and obviously this whole book has been Paul writing to Timothy, but Paul calls in these witnesses, and the purpose of calling witnesses in, he calls in God and Christ Jesus as two witnesses, and Paul identifies these as witnesses to underscore the importance of this last charge. Paul looks at Timothy and says, Timothy, this is important, so I'm gonna charge you to do this, but it's not just me. Look behind me, and there's much greater people. In fact, your God and your King are standing behind me, hearing me make this charge to you. And so Paul identifies witnesses to underscore the importance of the last charge and the identity of the witnesses. Being God and Christ Jesus, it emphasizes the gravity of this charge. Timothy, this isn't a small charge that I'm giving to you. This is a very, very important charge. So the identity of the witnesses emphasizes the gravity of the church, but then he then goes on and describes more about the witnesses. It's not just God and Christ Jesus, it's Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing, and by his kingdom. And so he starts to describe the witnesses, and the description of the witnesses, I think, serves to emphasize the necessity of completing the church. So we're kind of skipping forward, the church is gonna be preached the word, I charge 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. But why does he add, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom? Well, I think what Paul has in the back of his mind is, I'm making this presence, I'm making this charge in the presence of these witnesses. And it's important, these are witnesses that are hearing me make this charge, but also this is why the charge is important, is because Jesus Christ is gonna come back to judge the living and the dead. and preaching the word is going to be what is going to be the answer to that problem, or that event in the future is to preach the word. Jesus is going to come back. The kingdom does belong to him. And so Timothy, what do we need to do? If those are truths, what do we need to do? We need to preach the word. And so he identifies these witnesses to make this charge be very important, to emphasize the gravity, the necessity of this charge. And so we start with the two witnesses that he lists off. But then as we go, we continue on into the main substance of the charge. So he 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 in his kingdom, preach the word. So, the last charge is actually a really short, pithy phrase, preach the word. That's what it is. That's the sum of the charge. And so, he says, preach the word. And so, as I go through this, I want to think about, what does it mean to preach the word? I mean, we all know we have a preacher stand up every Sunday. He preaches out of the Bible. But what does it mean when Paul looks at Timothy and says, preach the word? So we look at that word preach, that word preach literally means herald, someone who is going to announce or proclaim. Sometimes in certain translations it's actually translated proclaim, sometimes it's translated preach. The derivation of the word is from a herald, someone who would represent the king, who would go out as a crier, someone who would authoritatively announce for another, for someone in authority. And so he's taking that person's authority and going out and announcing their message for them. And so that's what Paul's saying, is you need to herald, you need to be a representative of, and the second word here is, well, first, before we do that, I wanna look at herald. The word herald there, or preach, is an imperative verb. It means it's a command. Paul looks at Timothy and says, this is a command. This isn't an option, something that you might do. Timothy, this is a command that you're gonna need to do, is to be a herald. And what are you gonna herald? The word. or the Scriptures. In fact, when he says, preach the Word, I think we all know what it means, but we're reading into that. When he says, preach the Word, why do we know that the Word is Scripture? Well, Paul has been talking about the Word, actually, as we've gone through all of 2 Timothy. We haven't maybe highlighted it emphatically until the second half, but all the way through, he's been talking about the Word. All the way back in 2 Timothy 1.3, he starts the book by telling Timothy, follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me. And so the word that Paul's talking about, the word that Paul's thinking of when he says, preach the word, he says, Timothy, I gave you a message. Now you're going to keep heralding that message. We can keep going through. Paul says that he's in prison. Though I am bound in change, but the word of God is not bound. So when Paul says the word, he's thinking of the word of God, the word that God has given. 2 Timothy 2.15, we got that first charge in the second half of the book, 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. 2 Timothy 3.15, he says, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3.16, where we finished last week, all scripture is breathed out by God. That brought us to 2 Timothy 4.2, preach the word. And so Paul's been building up this theology of the word of God to say, this is the message that has been passed down. It came from God himself and went through the apostles. It's been passed down to you. He's told them earlier in this book to keep passing it down to others. But then at the end of the book, he says, this is your task. Preach that word, herald that word, announce it with the authority of God himself. Come and represent that word. And so as we think about what does Paul mean to preach the Word and why does he give such importance to that command, I want to think about what does that mean. And so we're going to look at some other places to try to understand what does it mean to preach the Word, because there's lots of preachers and lots of ways of preaching, but when Paul says, preach the Word, what does he mean? So he's saying something like this, your main job is to publicly declare that this is what God says. Your main job is to publicly declare that this is what God says. And so what does it mean to do that? Well, I think we can go to other passages in the New Testament and start to create a theology of preaching. When I'm gonna start thinking about what does it mean to preach the word, I'm always gonna come to 1 Peter 4, 10 through 11 first. This is Peter near the end of his first book. He's speaking to the gathered churches that he's writing to. And he tells them this, as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. So like Paul, Peter looked at the church and said, God's given a lot of different gifts. But here's a couple of different gifts that I want you to be cognizant of. He says there are gifts of people who speak, people who herald, people who proclaim. And if they're going to proclaim, if they're gonna be heralds, preachers, then how should they do it? They should speak as one who speaks the oracles of God. So when we think about Paul saying, preach the word, he's saying, Timothy, stand up and represent God. Speak as though you were speaking for God himself. Speak as though you were an oracle. So oracle is something maybe a long way distant from us at this point. But an oracle was someone who would stay in temple and they were almost a mystic person. They thought that at certain times they would go into trances and be able to speak on behalf of the God. He's saying, well, don't do that, don't take drugs and put yourself in a trance and say unknowable things. But he does say, speak as though he's speaking the oracles of God. When you speak, make sure that it sounds as though God is speaking. Make sure that you're speaking with the voice of God as you speak. And so if we're gonna define what does it mean to preach the word, we're gonna have to first say that preaching the word means speaking God's words, not your own words, speaking God's words with God's authority. speaking God's words with God's authority. Preach the word. Then we can go to another sequence. The next sequence that I wanna think about is in Matthew, actually this word is used several times, and the only other place this word is used as a command is twice in Matthew. So I'm not gonna hit all the times that this word is used in Matthew or all the times it's used in the New Testament, because it's actually a pretty common word. But I wanna go through and think about some highlights about this word as we go through Matthew, because it becomes a very important word in Matthew. And so we can start, Matthew 4, 17, this is actually the second use of the word because it was first used about John the Baptist. John the Baptist came proclaiming a message as a herald, but then in Matthew 4, 17, it says this, from that time, Jesus began to preach. saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so the book of Matthew, as we start to develop the ministry of Jesus, Jesus was a preacher, a herald, one who proclaimed, and he proclaimed a message, the message was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So we can go a few verses later, we come to Matthew 4, 23, he goes into the synagogue, he reads out of Isaiah 61, which we also read this morning, and then it says this, and he went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming, that's the same word, preaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So Jesus went out as a preacher, one who went to herald a message for someone who is in authority. He was the herald of God Almighty to come and preach the gospel, which had the message, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then we read Matthew 10 this morning. As Jesus went as a preacher, he started to call apostles. In Matthew 10, it lists the 12 apostles that he called. And then the next verses, Jesus charges the apostles and tells them what they're going to be doing. So it says, these 12 Jesus sent out. instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim, or preach, that's that same word, it's actually the exact same tense of that word, it's the imperative verb, the command, proclaim as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So Jesus went out preaching a message as a representative of God. He called 12 apostles and said, now I'm sending you out to go preach that same message. Go continue to take that message and proclaim it in the world. So we're gonna skip off over a lot of uses of this word and Matthew, but I'm gonna come to Matthew 24, 14, kind of close out our journey through Matthew. Matthew 24, 14, Jesus' disciples come and ask him a bunch of questions, which creates a very unique, interesting answer, but about the time of the end. And this is Jesus' clearest statement about when the end will come. It says, Matthew 24, 14, it says, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed, will be preached, will be heralded throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. And so as we go through Matthew, it starts with Jesus preaching a message on behalf of God. He calls 12 apostles and sends them out to preach, to herald, to proclaim that same message. Then it says, that activity is going to continue on until the end of history. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. and then the end will come. So first we say to preach the word means to speak God's words with God's authority, but then second we could add this. To preach God's words means taking Jesus's message and applying Jesus's message to your hearer's hearts. to say, this is the message that Jesus came with. This is the message that I'm going to give to you because I'm a secondary herald. Jesus was the primary herald coming with a message. Then he entrusted that message, which kept getting entrusted and kept getting entrusted. But it's the same message that goes out. But then third, we could spend a lot of time thinking about what does it mean to preach, but the third passage I'd like to get to is Acts 20-26. And as Paul says, preach the word, we could look at Paul and say, what did Paul do? And so Acts 20-26, this isn't exactly the end of Paul's ministry, but it's close to the end of Paul's ministry. Paul's anticipating the end of his ministry. He's going back to Jerusalem, and he's pretty sure once he goes to Jerusalem, that's gonna start the final events of his ministry. So he gathers the Ephesian elders together, and he talks to them, and he makes this conclusion about his ministry. He says, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Paul says, I went through, I was a herald. I was appointed a secondary herald from Jesus to preach this message. And what did I do as I did that? I declared to you the whole gospel of God. So for making statements to preach the word means, the third one is gonna be preaching the word means declaring only and exactly what God said. Declaring only and exactly what God said. And so Paul says, preach the word. Your main job is to publicly declare that this is what God says, which means you're gonna need to speak God's words with God's authority. You're gonna need to take Jesus' message and apply his message to your hearer's hearts. And you're gonna need to declare only and exactly what God said. And that's what he's thinking about when he's saying, Timothy, preach the word. We could summarize it like this. Timothy, you have been appointed a herald for the almighty God. And so when I make this charge to you, I'm charging you in the presence of almighty God and of his great son who has to judge the living and the dead. Do your job. Herald that word. Announce what God has said. And so that's the charge, the substance of the charge. Preach the word. Be one who speaks with the authority of God and be very careful to speak only and exactly what God has said. But he keeps going, he doesn't end right there, he 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 in this kingdom, preach the word, not period. So the next thing he's gonna do is give a time reference, a when, he's gonna add this phrase, in season and out of season. So preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. So he adds this phrase, you're going to preach the word, and then he's going to tell us, when are you going to preach the word? We've already kind of seen this from Matthew. Jesus came preaching a message. He gave that message to his apostles. Then he said, that message is going to keep being preached until the end comes. So unless you've found the end, probably it's still going on. But Paul's going to say the same thing. Be ready in season and out of season. It's going to say, it's always, but we'll get there in a second. But first, I want to look at those words. In a lot of our translations, it's going to say something like, be ready. And that's an okay translation, but I don't think it's the best translation of the word that's there, because the word that's actually used there is to stand. means to stand on or to stand near to something. Sometimes it means to associate with because you're standing near it. Sometimes it means to stand on top of it, to make it your foundation. And so I think we should better translate this something like this. Preach the word, stand by it, in season and out of season, or maybe even stand on it, in season and out of season. I think that word is actually really important. Stand quiet. Paul's looking at Timothy and saying, I'm calling you to preach the word. You're to be a herald of Almighty God and to say exactly what he has said. And guess what, Timothy, you can't go off and be distracted by anything else. You need to stand by that word all the time. So he says, Timothy, preach the word and keep preaching the word. Don't get distracted by anything else. That word is what you're standing by. Stand by it all the time. And specifically, it gets two times that you're to stand by it. You're to stand by it in season. Thank you. And season means something like, when it's easy. Keep preaching the word when it's easy and people respond. Don't get distracted because you think, well, I've done my job, everybody's heard and responded, I can be done now. It says, when it's easy, keep preaching the word. What's going to give food to Christians who want to hear, it's gonna be preaching that message, standing by the message that you've been given. So when it's easy, don't get distracted and think we're gonna move on to other things and move past this message. So he says, stand by it, stand by it in season and stand by it out of season. If in season means when things are going well and everything seems to be going smoothly and people are hearing and responding to your message, out of season would mean the opposite. Keep preaching the word when it's hard and people reject it. Both of those might be dangers. There might be a danger of thinking, my job's done. I can stop preaching the message because my hearers are responding. Or I can think, you know what, this is too hard. People aren't listening. People aren't responding. They're going their own ways. Paul says, it doesn't matter which side you find yourself on or any smear in the middle. He says, guess what? Stand by that word. Preach the word and make that your foundation. So his statement here could be said, preach the word. Preaching the word is always your primary responsibility. It doesn't matter what situation you find yourself in, we're gonna keep preaching that word until Christ returns, which is why Paul probably brought up his appearing in his kingdom at the beginning. So when? Always, in season and out of season. Then he keeps going, so then the next question I think he's gonna answer is, okay, here's your charge. Preach the word. When should you do this? In season and out of season, all the time. How are you supposed to do this? What methods are you gonna use? So he says, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. So he's gonna give some methods, and he kinda gives two different categories of methods. The first are a series of three verbs, rebuke, reprove, and exhort, secondary verbs, and then he's gonna give a couple adjectives with complete patience and teaching. So he's gonna go and look at Timothy and says, Timothy, here's your charge. Preach the word. Be a herald of the message that God sent you with. But then he's gonna say, when you preach that word, these are the actions and the attitudes that are gonna be involved in preaching that word. If you're gonna preach that word, you're gonna need to be doing these actions and having these attitudes while you preach that word. And so he says, preach the word, and he's gonna say, preach is gonna involve at least three things. If you're gonna preach the word, then you better be doing these three things as you herald God's message. Those three things are reprove, rebuke, and exhort. So what do those three words mean? Well, reprove is literally a word that means expose, and it used to mean expose sin. When you preach, you should say, this is sin. and expose what sin is. If you're not exposing what sin is, Paul would say, you're probably not preaching. If you can't say, this is wrong and against the things of Christ, that's not preaching. So he says, when you preach, you ought to reprove, say, these are the things that are sin, this is what is exposed as sin. You ought to rebuke it, to say, if this is where you are, you need to turn away. To rebuke means to literally to command repentance, to call them to turn. to say, this is what sin is, don't keep doing it. So when you preach the word, you should reprove, you should rebuke, and you should exhort. So we might hear that word in English and think, okay, that makes sense. And word exhort would often mean to give a positive command to say, go do this. That's kind of what it's saying, but the word literally in Greek would mean to invite or to call near, to say, hey, come up here. So he says, you need to expose sin, You need to command repentance from that sin and then call the people nearer. And in fact, when you hear those, when you hear the translation of those, that sounds an awful lot like the gospel message. Jesus came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand or near. He came to expose sin, to call the people's ears to turn away from that sin and invite them to come near to the kingdom. And that's what Paul is saying here. You expose sin, you command them to turn away from that sin, and you invite them to come near to the kingdom. He's saying, you need to be preaching the cores of the gospel message. If you're not doing that, if you're not doing all three of those things, you're probably not preaching. So he says, those are the three verbs that are going to go into this preaching activity. But then he says it's with complete patience and teaching. Not only are there actions, but there's also attitudes. I think he adds these in because you could read, reprove, rebuke, and exhort as very strong words. They are strong words, almost harsh words, some of them. You could say, ah, I've been given a platform, and I'm going to go and attack everyone. Then Paul says, but that's not what I mean. I mean, you do need to declare that message, expose sin, call them to turn away from sin, invite them to come near. But you're not doing that with a heart that is ready to destroy, a heart that's ready to defeat, a heart that says, you know what? I'm going to conquer you with this message. And it's not that sort of heart he's saying. It's a heart that's intriguing to say, This is sin. I'm declaring, poor God, it's not even me. This is what God says is sin. So turn away from it and come near to patiently teach what God has said. And so he says you need to do that with complete patience and teaching. In fact, you shouldn't expect that every time you stand up that everyone hears you well and everyone turns around. It's going to take patience. It's going to take time. You're going to have to teach. You're going to have to instruct. That word means literally to instruct. You're going to take this piece by piece and build on that message. And it keeps saying, this is what sin is like. Turn away from it and come near. This is what sin is like. Turn away from it and come near. And help those who hear you to understand that, to be able to hear what God has said and to turn their lives towards Him so that they come near to that gospel message. And so when, all the time, in season and out of season, how? By correcting and instructing to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, but to do so with complete patience and teaching. Then he's going to continue on. He's going to give us a why. Why is Paul giving Timothy this charge? He's going to give the charge because he's going to look at Timothy and say, this is really important. We got to do this because people won't naturally love the word. So he's going to give a reason for this charge, 2 Timothy 4, 3-4. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, where a curvy beard can exhort, with complete patience and teaching for. Four. So that's a word, a connected word saying, I'm going to explain why I'm giving you this message, why I'm giving you this charge. I'm going to say, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. So he's saying, you gotta preach this message because people don't gravitate towards this message. If we don't have a preacher preaching this message, people tend to gravitate towards other things. And he says, what will they gravitate towards? They're gonna gravitate towards their own passions. The sinful heart isn't naturally drawn to Christ. It's naturally drawn to the things that our heart loves apart from Christ. So he's gonna hold those two things up and he's saying, people don't naturally come to this message. They naturally go after their own passions, their own hearts, desires. And if you leave them to their own, their own things, they're going to have itching ears and accumulate for themselves, teachers that point that way. And so as we look at this, he's kind of setting up this dichotomy where they're going to not listen to the truth and instead wander off into myths. So he's gonna say on the one hand, They aren't going to be listening to sound teaching. On the other hand, they're going to follow their own passions, and the bent of the sinful heart is going to be towards their own passions. If you stop preaching, people aren't going to naturally draft towards God. That's not how the world works. Sin has corrupted the human heart and causes the natural bent of humanity to be away from the truths of this message. But that's not all that he's saying. He sets up that dichotomy and says, the bent of the world is away from this message. But he starts out with this, the time is coming when Paul's not saying it's not that way right now. In fact, we can look at Paul's ministry, and Paul's ministry would be characterized by this over and over and over again. The human heart wasn't naturally drawn to the things of Paul's message. So sometimes they stoned him, sometimes they threw him out of the city, sometimes they beat him and left him for dead. He was shipwrecked a few times as he goes through. He's not thinking it's not that way right now. What he's looking at and saying, this is the natural bent of the human heart, and guess what? Timothy, it's not going to get better. It's only going to get worse as time goes on. If we look at 2 Timothy, it's not the most hopeful book in the world. 2 Timothy seems to say over and over again, hey, guess what, Timothy? The end times are going to get harder and harder and harder. This is true now, right now, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. People are going to have harder and harder hearts so that they don't want to hear. they're gonna turn towards their own passions and run after their own passions, and therefore they're gonna accumulate for themselves their own teachers that'll tell them that what they want is exactly what they need. And so I think Paul's emphasizing three things with this, to say the bent of the human heart is towards other things. If we don't have someone heralding these things, that's gonna be where the human heart goes. And so Timothy, be a herald of this message so that people hear the opposite message. Preaching is gonna be the thing that's pushing back the other way to say, no, your heart might say this, But thus saith the Lord, this is what God says. Don't let your heart rule you, let God's message rule you. And so he's saying, this is the importance of preaching because the human heart is naturally going to go that way. But he's also emphasizing the urgency of preaching. He's saying, Timothy, preach now, because as time goes on, things are going to get worse. As time goes on, more and more are going to fall into the trap of following their own passions, and they're going to be lost. They're gonna have itching ears and run after their own desires. And so you need to preach now. Preach now while people might hear you, because if you don't, they may wander away into myths. And then finally, he's telling Timothy something about the challenge of preaching. Paul has been honest with Timothy throughout this book. He's told Timothy, this is what you're called to, and I know it's not easy. And he's kind of coming back to that again. Timothy, preach the word. I'm not saying that's gonna be an easy task. There might be in-seasons, but there definitely will also be out-of-seasons. And the out-of-seasons will be marked by this. People won't wanna listen to you. People won't want to listen to that message because their hearts want to go somewhere else. And so they'll reject you and find somebody else who will teach what they want to hear. So he says, Timothy, it's not going to be easy, but it is important and it is urgent. And so keep doing it. So why? Well, people won't love the word. Then he ends with one final statement, and I'm gonna come back to how. We had the first how, how are we gonna preach by correcting and instructing, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with complete patience and teaching, but then the second how is gonna focus on something else. So in 2 Timothy 4, 5, he says this. He says, as for you, So he's looked at these people, he says, this is the bend of the human heart. The human heart is going to want to go after its own passions and go after its own devices that will accumulate teachers to say, those things are great, go run after them and run that way so they will stop listening to the truth and instead wander off into myths. But then he starts with a contrast. That's what the world is going to be running towards, and you're going to find that in your church all too often, Timothy. But as for you, in contrast to that, we need to go the other way. So he's going to talk about something about the endurance or the perseverance of this charge, and then he's going to start saying several things. So he's going to say, Timothy, This is why the charge is important and urgent, but you're not going to be like that. Unlike those who turn away, you need to be sober-minded. So as for you, in contrast to those who are wandering away, always be sober-minded. So that word means to focus your mind on something, not to get distracted by things. So when Paul says, always be sober-minded, I think he's making a direct contrast with what happened before. There will be people who turn away from listening to the truth and instead wander off into myths. In other words, they get distracted from the truth of the gospel and they wander away into things otherwise. So he's saying, as for you, You need to make sure you've rooted yourself firmly in the message. Don't wander off in the midst. Be sober-minded. Keep that message in the forefront of your vision. Keep your focus on it. So you're like, no, this is what God said. No, this is what God said. No, this is what God said. Always be sober-minded. So as for you, always be sober-minded. Second exhortation is going to be this. Endure suffering. Again, I think this is in contrast, or at least in relationship to what just happened before. He said, people aren't going to want to hear messages that go against their heart. They're going to reject those messages and find other people who will teach them to say, this is what you can do. Do whatever you want. But you, unlike them, don't be ruled by your passion. Don't let your passion rule you, your pleasure rule you. Instead, stand as the bulwark. the stake in the river and saying, no, I'm not going to go that way. So when the river comes against you, there's going to be suffering because you're going the other way. But he says, endure that suffering. Put your stake down in the mud so that you don't get moved. So don't wander off into myths. Keep your focus on the truth. Don't pursue passion and pleasure. Instead, endure suffering from the truth. So always be sober minded. Endure suffering. Third thing he's going to say is to do the work of an evangelist. kind of an odd phrase, when we hear it, we think the word evangelist, somebody who goes out and tells unbelievers about the gospel message. I'm not gonna say that's not maybe incorporating what he's saying, but I don't think that's what Paul's thinking here, because the Greek word he's using here could mean that, but it means literally to be someone who speaks the gospel. Speak the gospel, speak the gospel. And so often, or sometimes, actually this word isn't used very often in the New Testament at all. Sometimes it is used to mean speak the gospel to unbelievers, but it doesn't have to have that reference. It means to speak the gospel. So he said, always be sober minded, keep your focus on the truth, endure suffering, even when the whole world is going against the truth, stick your stick in the mud and endure suffering for that truth. And the third one is gonna be, don't forget the message, don't stop listening to the truth, instead, proclaim that truth, speak the truth. He's coming back and saying the same thing he said at the beginning, preach the word, be a speaker of the gospel. So you don't let yourself wander away from the gospel, you endure suffering for not wandering away from that gospel, and you keep speaking that message, even if everyone else around you turns away from that message. And so his final exhortation is this, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. That's an interesting way to end it, but there's a note of finality. there's an end to your ministry, Timothy, and you need to keep going until you reach that end. This is actually a launching point for the next few verses in 2 Timothy, and so we're gonna come back here and remind ourselves of this next time we come back to 2 Timothy. But I think looking back, Paul's saying something like this. That's gonna be a long journey, Timothy. You're going to have people always wanting to go the other way. The bend of the human heart is going to be towards their own passions, away from the truth. They're going to not listen to the truth. Instead, want to fall, wander away into myths. You're going to be pushing back against them and speaking the gospel, but you're going to feel that whole river of current running the other way. So Timothy, fulfill your ministry. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Don't give up. Keep serving the truth until the end. So this last phrase is all in contrast to those who are wandering away. It says, as for you, don't wander away. Instead, keep your mind focused on the truth, endure suffering for that truth, declare that truth, and keep serving that truth until the end. So Paul says, Timothy, here's my chief charge. Preach the word. So as we close this morning, just a few applications I want to think about, what does this mean for us? Paul gave this charge to Timothy, but Paul also told Timothy, entrust these words to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And so we are in a long line of people from Timothy, all the way down to today. And so these words do mean something for us. So how do we apply these words here in our own congregation? Obviously, the first application is going to be to elders, to pastors, and to teachers. So we hear this, we hear Paul's charge to Timothy, we need to hear that and say, we must devote ourselves to faithfully and patiently preaching the word. Taking everything that I've just said about what does that mean, when do we do that, how do we do that, and say, that's my job. and I need to devote myself to it. And so the first application is to elders, to pastors and teachers and say, this is your job. Preach God's word, say exactly what God has said with God's authority as his herald to push back on the bent of the human heart and declare this is what God has said. But then I want to give three applications, because most people aren't elders and teachers. Many will never be elders and teachers, and that's a good thing. That's how God's designed His church. So what does it mean for someone who isn't an elder and a teacher? Well, I think the congregation should hear this and say, we demand that our elders preach the word faithfully. The church must demand that our elders faithfully and patiently preach the word. So there's two sides of this. There are those who are called to be elders, teachers, pastors in the church. They must faithfully preach the word. And the congregation should look and say, if you're not faithfully preaching the word, we're going to challenge you. In fact, we might even dismiss you at some point if you're not going to patiently and faithfully preach that word. And so the church has an application to say, this is what makes up a church is the faithful preaching of God's word, to have a man who's been appointed to come and stand and say, this is what God has said. Go live by it. So that's the first thing, is to demand that. The church should demand that her elders faithfully and patiently preach God's word. But then second, I think the church ought to hear this and say, wow, preaching is important. Paul looked at Timothy, and he said a lot of things to Timothy. He wrote the whole book of 1 Timothy, then he's written most of the book of 2 Timothy, and then he comes to this charge, preach the word, and this is the only time Paul gets this fired up. He looks at me and says, I charge you, not just me though, but God and Jesus Christ, not any Jesus Christ, but the one who's going to come to judge the living and the dead, the one who's going to appear, the one to whom the kingdom belongs. Preach the word. Others should hear them and be like, whoa. I better be preaching the word that's important. The congregation should hear that and say, I better attend the preaching of God's word. And what I don't mean, what I don't only mean, because I do mean this, but what I don't only mean is that you're sitting here like attending, like you attended class. probably an important part of attending to the preaching of God's Word, but I mean more than that. I mean to attend to it with your mind, to attend to it with your ears, to hear what the elders are saying as they preach God's Word, to weigh it against God's Word as it says the Bereans heard and then measured and said, is that actually what God's Word says? That's one reason why I tried to actually show you in the Word of God what I'm saying, because I want you to be able to say, is that actually what God is saying? But to hear it, to say, I want to be attentive to the preaching of God's Word. And so they should attend to, which means this fourth one is kind of an expansion of that. They're going to attend to the preaching of God's Word, means the church is going to need to listen to and submit as their elders faithfully and patiently preach the Word. To say, this is important. God's called for this. This is something that God has said is at the core of the ministry of elders, which means it has to be somehow at the core of what the church is, is to have God's message continually spoken out. And if that's true, I need to go listen to it, I need to be attentive to it, I need to listen to it, I need to submit to that teaching. And it doesn't mean absolute, but like I said, judge it against what the word of God says. If one of us gets up here and starts saying, this is what God says, and you can look at the scripture and God does not say that, you shouldn't submit. But as your elders are faithfully and patiently preaching the word, then the church ought to listen and submit. Because Paul says, this is important. This is important enough for me to call witnesses in and say, hear what I'm saying. hear what I'm saying to you. God and Jesus Christ are going to stand as witnesses that I've charged you to do this. So as we close the message today, my kids' questions this morning, kids, on the back of your bulletin if you wanna write this in, what do elders do? What do elders do? This is gonna be a comprehensive list, like these are all the things that elders do, but if we were to define elders, it would have to be by this. They faithfully preach God's word. Elders faithfully preach God's word. They act as heralds to say this is what God said. Go live by it. That will close. Father, We're grateful for your word. We're grateful for this charge that Paul gave to Timothy. Father, as we hear this church, I want to pray several different things. Father, I pray that those who have been called as elders and teachers in your church will hear this and recognize the gravity of this. Father, I pray that you would weigh the gravity of preaching even deeper in my heart. Make me even more careful and more passionate to preach your message with your authority and to preach only your message. Father, I pray that you would strengthen us in that, give us the wisdom, the ability, the understanding, the boldness that we will need to do that. But Father, I also pray for this congregation. I pray that as we hear of the importance of preaching, that you would give us a renewed passion for being attentive to the preaching of God's Word. Father, that you would allow the congregation to hear the word as it's preached, to weigh it against what you have said in your word, and then to go out and apply it to their lives. Father, I pray that as you have commanded this, that you would make it fruitful in our church, Father, that as you have promised, your word would not go forth void, but would have effect and would not return to you empty, but would accomplish that which you set it out to do. So Father, show us your glory and your power by doing that even here in our midst. Okay.