So, speaking of prayer, let us pray before we come. Lord, thank you for all that you do for us. Your wounds have paid our ransom, and you call us, Lord, to be your servants in this world. Help us, Lord, to faithfully fulfill the calling that you have placed on each one of us And Lord, we pray that as we consider your word, it would touch our hearts, it would transform us through the power of your Holy Spirit, that we might more and more come to understand and desire to follow hard after our Savior and what he has commanded for us to do. We ask all this now in his most excellent name, amen. Well, last week we began to look at the final chapter of Paul's second letter to Timothy, and at least that is as far as we are certain. It's his last divinely inspired instructions to his young protege and to the church. So if you have your Bible with you, please turn to 2 Timothy chapter four, In that message, we saw Paul's most solemn charge to pastors like Timothy, and we observed that the pastor's most critical responsibility is to preach God's word. And if you remember, I pointed out the fact that this section that we are now in the process of studying really should be considered a continuing part of the previous chapter, not a new section. So let me back up this morning and read the whole of this section that begins in chapter three and verse 10 to bring this kind of all together to see how this fits, okay? So 2 Timothy chapter three beginning in verse 10. Paul writes, you, however, know all about my teaching. my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings. What kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra? The persecutions that I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you've learned and become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed. and it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now we come to chapter 4 which really should be a part of chapter 3. After extolling this wonderful origin and value of the scriptures, Paul calls on the most high witness to Timothy's responsibilities in verse one. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. This verse tells us that Jesus is God, that Jesus will judge the world, that Jesus is going to return and set up his eternal kingdom. Therefore, Timothy, and all pastors, and all believers, do not neglect your primary duty, whatever your primary duty is. For a pastor, it is to proclaim God's word. Verse two, preach the word, Paul says. Proclaim it in the manner of a king's herald or messenger. You may not modify it, you may not negotiate over it. The king who is to return to rule and reign will hold you responsible for the accuracy of your proclamation as well as the timing of it. Thus, pastors must remain ready to proclaim God's message at all times. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, whether it's convenient or not. and pastors are to deliver the whole counsel of God. We saw Paul's inspired command to preach, correct, rebuke, encourage, responds directly with the valuable parts of God's word given in verse 16 of the last chapter. God breathes scripture, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Preaching and teaching the truth, that is what is right. Exposing error and sin, what's wrong, correcting, that is, how to get back on the right track once again, and training or encouraging how to stay on the right track. Well, finally, to close verse two, we saw that pastors must also be long-suffering and willing to teach God's truth even to their opponents. Preach the word in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience, That's the word long-suffering, enduring the slings and arrows of ministry, is what that word really means, and careful instruction. That leads us to today's passage that explains why the word of God is so critical and why Paul was inspired to give Timothy this most solemn charge. to give Timothy and all pastors this most solemn charge. Our message title is Paul's Prophesied Future Is Now. Verse number three of 2 Timothy 4. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine, Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. From these verses, we see that the apostate conditions of the world and the church make the pastor's responsibilities all the more critical. The apostate state of the world and the church makes the pastor's responsibilities all the more critical. Verse three begins with the word for in the original Greek, That word could be translated as because. It's a strong explanatory connector to what has just come. And we next see that Paul prophesied a future in which life and health-giving doctrine will not be tolerated. Paul prophesied a future in which life and health-giving doctrine would not be tolerated, verse three, for the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Time here speaks of an era or a season of time and that time was not fulfilled or at least not fully fulfilled in Paul and Timothy's day but most certainly as we look around us at the world today the state of the church in the world today, we would have to say that Paul's prophesied time is now. People in most quarters these days are not at all willing to put up with, that is, tolerate, endure, listen to sound doctrine, sound teaching. Sound is from the Greek, huianio, and it originally meant physically healthy, but it came to be used of teaching that was biblically accurate, spiritually nourishing, and life and health giving. Doctrine is instruction. Here it's primarily referring to the content of one's preaching and teaching rather than the way that it is conveyed. Let me just throw out a few areas of doctrine that have come under attack in recent years and centuries. So that sound teaching is undermined and false doctrine is promoted, the first area that we could mention is probably the most attacked because it's the source of all the doctrine. That would be the area of bibliology, okay? Biblio, the book, ology is study, study of the book, the origin, nature, and value of the Bible itself. Today, many, both outside and sadly inside the church, believe that the Bible is made up of mythology, of legend, man-made stories, That false doctrine denies the divine inspiration, the authority, and the inerrancy of the Bible, being without error as God's holy word. And it reduces the scriptures to superstitions, to ancient men's musings and opinions. But the Bible claims of itself, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 19 says that the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm and all of them are righteous. They're more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They're sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. And by them, your servant is warned, because in keeping them, there is great reward. Now, I can't take time today to refute each of these challenges to sound doctrine. The refutations are right there in the scriptures for those who are willing to read and identify them. Secondary that's been under attack is theology proper. Theos, God, study of God, the nature of God, People will deny God's existence as one God eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They'll deny his role as creator and ascribe it to random forces. They'll deny God's omniscience, his all-knowingness. This has been attacked by something called open theism. It's been promoted in liberal circles. It's a teaching that claims that God cannot know the future because he can't know what someone will do until they decide and do it. There's a theological term for such stuff. Garbage. God knows the end from the beginning, friends, and scripture says that, okay? Christology has been under attack, obviously the study of Christ, his nature. There's been denials over the years of his deity. There's been denials of his humanity. There's even been denials of the fact that he even existed. Did you know that there was a group called the Jesus Seminar back in the 70s formed with the stated purpose of, quote, rediscovering the historical Jesus that was hidden behind almost 2,000 years of Christian traditions, myths, and legends. They claimed that they were seeking to discover who Jesus really was and what he truly said, but because the scholars of the Jesus Seminar don't believe or didn't believe in the deity of Christ, they don't believe that he could do miracles, they don't believe in miracles at all, they don't believe in the meaning and the purpose of his death, They don't believe in the reality of his resurrection from the grave after dying on the cross. The true purpose of these liberals was to attack and undermine what the Bible clearly teaches about who Jesus said he was and about everything that he taught. They voted to see what words Jesus said. Black was he never said it. Red was we're pretty sure he did. Pink was maybe, and gray was we kind of doubt it. There's more in black than all three of the other areas. And guess what? The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas was the place where they had the most trust and belief, not the four Gospels that are in our Bible. Attacks, after attacks on the Bible itself, attacks on Jesus and the gospel message are probably the most common form of unhealthy doctrine. As we talk about Jesus, we have to talk about soteriology, soter, being saved in the Greek, the study of salvation. How is one saved? There's denial that Christ died in our place for our sins. Even in Paul's days, there was argument over the value and place of works and whether or not one needed to follow certain religious rituals in order to be saved. Anthropology, anthros, man, doctrines of mankind, denials of original sin. Denials of the inherited sin nature, apostates and liberals claim that the basic human nature of mankind is good. We're all good people. Just bad stuff kind of happens to us. The Bible teaches that everyone is infected with sin, which is what causes us to perform sinful acts. Speaking of sinful acts, that too, under attack, hamartology. Amartya is sin in the Bible, one of the words for sin. It's doctrines regarding sin. Along with the rejection of the inspiration and authority of the scriptures comes redefinition then of what and what isn't sin. Right? If you don't believe what the Bible says about sin, then sin is redefined. So John MacArthur reminds, sound doctrine provides a stinging rebuke to ungodly living that is unacceptable and intolerable to those who want to persist in sin. Those who live contrary to sound doctrine resent and resist such teaching and preaching. They reject then as unloving anyone who presumes to hold them accountable to doctrinal beliefs and moral standards that they deem outmoded and irrelevant. Consequently, the preacher whom they least like to hear brings the message that they need the most. We are living in a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. They promote that which is just the opposite, but the Bible warns, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And we may well ask, well, why does this happen? The answer is, quite frankly, very simple. False teaching appeals to our fallen sinful nature. False teaching appeals to our fallen sinful nature. Look at the second half of verse three here. The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want. to hear. Desires is from the Greek epithumia. It means really not simply one's wants or one's wishes or desires. It's really translated elsewhere as sinful passions because epithumia carries the connotation of evil desires, of cravings, of longings for things that are forbidden. So to satisfy or to enable those sinful passions or desires, people will gather around them a great number of teachers. Now, gather around them a great number actually translates only one word in the original Greek. It's used only here and it literally meant to heap things up in piles. To accumulate them. Just gather together piles of teachers. not good, godly, sound and spiritual, health-giving preachers and teachers. No, these are in Greek, natho, which is a rather derisive term, suggesting that they scratch an itch, they tickle or they tintilate. In other words, they make people desire to hear something pleasant. These then are not those who share the whole counsel of God, the teaching, the reproof, the rebuke, the correction, the training in righteousness. Instead, they focus relentlessly on little bits and pieces of the Bible that promise blessing but never the rebukes. Never the warnings, never the promises of problems and persecutions like we saw already today. They speak about the parts of the Bible that they like and they ignore the rest like a child going through the old country buffet. Don't want none of that. Don't want none of that. Let me go over to the chocolate fountain. They'll talk about forgiveness, but not repentance. They'll talk about freedom, but not responsibility. They'll talk about God's love, but not His righteous wrath. They'll talk about God's kindness, but not His holiness. In short, they talk only about what people like and want to hear. Let me just suggest four of the more common ideas that these false teachers will promote. The lie that God wants you to be happy. They'll say, you have, Bible says, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Drink and be merry. It's right there in the Bible. That's what God wants for you. He wants you to be happy. Well, the truth is, God doesn't care that much about your happiness. He wants you to be holy. 2 Corinthians 7, 1, Therefore, since we have these promises of good things, dear friends, let us then purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our body and our spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. How about this lie? God wants you to be healthy. They'll quote the first part of James 5.15, the prayer and faith will make the sick person well. The truth is God wants to heal your sin disease soul. But he may or he may not choose to heal you from any particular disease or illness. Because James 5.15 comes with a context, as does all of the scripture. And to understand the word of God, you've got to understand the context of any given verse. And the context of that verse about prayer offered in faith, making the sick person well, is that that illness is an illness caused by sin. look at the rest of the verse. The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise them up. If they've sinned, they'll be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And my brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. That's all about sin or sickness that's related to sin. It's not just a blanket guarantee. Another very common lie that, oh boy, do people buy into this one, God wants you to be wealthy. You're a child of the king. They'll quote a passage like 2 Corinthians 9, 6, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Well, that's true, it's in the Bible. But then they'll go on and promise you that according to God's law of sowing and reaping, if you give generously to our ministry, God is obligated to bless you with material wealth. I've mentioned before one particular so-called ministry that shows up on over the air TV, that's all I've got, that's all I want to afford. It shows up in the wee hours of the morning It's called Inspiration Camp Meeting. It's money. They preach every single time about money and how giving to them will assure you of God's financial blessings. That's the message of every single show. No matter when I tune in, I make a bet with myself. How long will I wait for this to come up? I don't think it's ever been longer than a minute. Honestly. Look up here at the homepage of the Inspiration Camp Meeting website. The first thing you see. What's it say? Sow your seed. That's the landing page. That is the message of their ministry. Sow your seed. And right below it, it says, sowing your seed into the good ground of inspiration ministry schedule, hear this, schedules a harvest of blessing into your future. First and primary message that they have to give, the truth, God wants you to rely on Him and be content with whatever it is He provides. That's what the Bible actually teaches in context. Hebrews 13 5, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you and never will I forsake you. We saw in first Timothy, Chapter six, beginning in verse six, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. You will not hear those verses taught by these sorts of people. The most common itching ear teaching out there, though, is the lie that God doesn't care that much about your sin. It's no big deal to Him. Sin's not a big deal at all, as John MacArthur correctly states. Even in churches that were once genuinely evangelical, where the Bible was once the standard for belief and for living, God's word has been compromised. Sometimes it's stripped of its clear meaning, or it is relegated to a place of secondary authority behind personal, quote, revelations claimed to be from God. And in many churches that once preached sound doctrine, Evils that God's Word plainly and repeatedly condemns are now touted as acceptable. Women are ordained to ministries that the Bible restricts to men. And radical feminists even reject the idea of God as our Heavenly Father. That's the patriarchy! Ugh! They refer to He as She. So I guess God can't even choose his own pronouns. I don't know, which is it? If you're a liberal, you don't have to be consistent in your views. Homosexuals are not only welcomed without reproof or repentance into the church fellowship, but their desires are affirmed and they are celebrated in a number of cases. They are even brought into the pulpit. From Paul's day right down to our time, false teachers have been infiltrating the church and encouraging people not to worry about their sin. They minimize it. They ignore sin in their message or they redefine it to mean something other than what the Bible says that it is, but they never teach that people should be concerned about it. As June warned, certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into license for immorality, and they deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord. Paul explained at the end of the first chapter of Romans after describing the lengthy list of sins, and although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, that's sound doctrine, they not only continue to do these very things, but they also approve of those who practice them. They pat him on the back and say, good for you. The truth is God is so concerned about sin that he sent his only son to the cross to save us from our sin. He cares so much about sin and is so concerned that we be rescued from its penalty and his power that he sent his one and only, his begotten, only begotten son to earth to live a perfect sinless life and to die an excruciating and horrible death in order that our sins might be forgiven because he had none of his own. He took ours on himself. He paid the penalty, the debt that we owed, that we might be forgiven if we will only repent and believe in this Jesus, the Savior and Lord that God has sent to deal with our sin problem. Paul wrote, what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And the key Old Testament passage that describes that death is in Isaiah chapter 53. He was pierced. He was pierced through in His hands and feet for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The weight of sin overwhelmed Him. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him and by His wounds we are healed. We all like sheep had gone astray. Each of us had turned to our own way, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of all of us. So instead of having their consciences convicted of their need for a savior, many come to these pretend churches to have their ears tickled. They have their egos fed and they have their sins approved of. rather than having their hearts cleansed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, they could care less what the Bible says regarding repentance and how to be saved because they believe themselves to be basically good, good enough to get to heaven on their own anyway. And they come to churches that preach only positivity in order to feel good about themselves rather than to learn how to become good in God's eyes. So Paul predicts the exchange of the truth for lies and for fables. Predicts the exchange of truth for lies and fables, verse four. They'll turn their ears away from the truth and they will turn aside to myths. Paul prophesies of the day that is now quite fully arrived in our time. People will turn away from what they need to hear to what they want to hear. Deliberate rejection of the truth makes people vulnerable to myths and lies. Chuck Swindoll describes a situation like this. Basically, myths serve the desires of people by using contrived history to substantiate and affirm their wrong choices. The Bible, of course, doesn't justify or rationalize sin. The Bible challenges us to rise to God's standard of right and wrong. Paul's already given instructions about the need to teach people to pay no attention to and reject Jewish myths and arguments over genealogies. This was in his first letter to Timothy, two different times, as well as to Titus. And what's interesting to understand here is that according to the linguistic scholars, in the original Greek, these two turnings have a different Greek construction. The first turning away from the truth is something that one does as a volitional act. It's something that the one who should be hearing does. They are the ones who are turning away, but the construction of the second turning aside to miss is in the form of an outside force acting upon the person. In other words, turning aside to myths, fables, and cleverly concocted stories, as this word muthos is translated elsewhere, will happen automatically and inevitably when one chooses to turn away from the truth. It's the way the Greek is constructed. If you turn away from the truth, you will automatically turn toward myths, fables, and cleverly concocted stories. human opinions. And in our topsy-turvy age that Paul prophesied would come, the Bible, God's truth that Paul so beautifully touted regarding its origin and value in that last chapter is the thing that is being dismissed as man-made myths. while man's opinions, man's speculations, man's stories are being elevated to the place of ultimate authority. The opinions of science over God's word. And the question of what is truth anyway? That may be your truth, but that's not my truth. Goes all the way back to Jesus' day, doesn't it? At his trial, Pilate went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus, and asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Was that your idea, asked Jesus, or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilate replied. Your own people and chief priests have handed you over to me. What is it that you have done? Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place. You are a king then, said Pilate. Jesus answered, you say that I am a king, and in fact, the reason that I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. What is truth? Pilate retorted. Jesus didn't answer Pilate's rhetorical question because he knew the man wasn't asking sincerely. He was looking for a way to wash his hands of the whole thing. And what Pilate really meant, as many people do today, the truth is relative, the truth is unknowable, truth is frankly unimportant. My feelings are far more important than the truth. In his great high priestly prayer for believers recorded in John 17, Jesus said, sanctify them, make them holy, set them apart by the truth. Your word, the word of God is truth. And frankly, this questioning of what the truth is goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Third chapter of Genesis. The fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. The first words of Satan designed to undermine the human race were, did God really say? Did God really say? And he's been using that same trick ever since. He doesn't have to change it because it works so well. That question persists to this very day, leading people to embrace myths, fables, and human stories and opinions rather than God's revelation. what is recorded in His Holy Word. Paul discusses the problem in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans. He writes, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain. Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power, His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Although they knew God, they knew that there was a God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor did they give thanks to Him. But their thinking became futile. Their foolish hearts were darkened, and although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being, and birds, and animals, and reptiles. They worship what they see in the mirror more than anything. Therefore, God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and they worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Do we not see this in the cult of climate change today? We worship the earth. because somehow what God has created, we are capable of destroying. Yeah, I wanna live in an area with nice air and clean water and all of that. By the way, did you see where Barack Obama's house is located? It's his nice great big mansion. Millions of dollars right on the oceanfront of Martha's Vineyard. The oceans are going to rise. Why do you buy that? I digress. Contrast all of this with what Peter said about the truthfulness of the word of God, this is from his second epistle, he writes, so I will always remind you of these things even though you know them and they're firmly established in the truth that you now have. I think it right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body "'cause I know that I will soon put it aside "'as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. "'I'll make every effort to see that after my departure, "'you will always be able to remember these things. "'For we did not follow cleverly devised stories.'" That's that word that we were just talking about, mythos. "'When we told you about the coming "'of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, "'but we were actually eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying, this is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. We ourselves heard that voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, the word of God. And so you will do well to pay attention to it as a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation of things. Men didn't make this up. All scripture is God breathed. This all ties together friends. Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but the prophets, although they were human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The wind blew them. It's the same word used of a ship being blown before the wind. It's also important to remember in all this that it takes two to tango in this situation, does it not? False teachers are guilty of promoting error and sin, but those who gladly listen to them, or worse, as described in our passage today, who heap up and pile up teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear, they're not innocent victims, they're willing participants in the evil. Bible knowledge commentary reminds, for error to flourish both sides of the transaction, the errant teachers and the willing hearers must cooperate. Moody commentary puts it this way, the people of God's church are accountable for what they want to hear, and those who only want to have their ears tickled are complicit in the work of false teachers. John Kitchen suggested listening to only teaching that we like is often the first step in embracing falsehood and error. Good preaching offends, my friends. It convicts. It doesn't just make you feel good. Because of all this, pastors and the Christians that they lead are charged with some important responsibilities, and Paul gives these in verse five. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and discharge all the duties of your ministry. So Paul now adds four more imperatives for pastors and church leaders. who are supposed to be setting the example for everyone else. We saw more of them early in verse 2. Verse 5 begins with a strong contrastive. It's, but you, indicating that the good and faithful pastor is just the opposite of these bad ones. Paul has just described, keep your head, translates the Greek word nepho, and it's often translated to be sober, which makes people think Well, I'm not supposed to be drunk. That's not quite the meaning. It's part of the meaning. We saw this during the qualification for elders, deacons, and church leaders. Not being drunk is not the primary meaning of the word. It's part of it, as I said. The idea is really being clear-headed, of being calm, of being cool and collected, allowing nothing to negatively influence our thinking and our judgment. Paul used this word several times in his first epistle. Therefore, with minds that are fully alert and fully sober, Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed of his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. And again in chapter five, be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Again, Chuck Swindoll suggests that stability must characterize the faithful pastor in a sinful world. Be steady and balanced. Remain a model of self-control. A crazy world needs a steady voice. Second imperative Paul's inspired to give is a reiteration of what he has already written in each of the first three chapters. Be ready and willing to suffer for and because of the Lord. says here, endure hardship. Paul mentions this issue, as I said, in each of the first three chapters of this letter. Second Timothy 1, so do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Chapter 2, join with me in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel for which I am suffering, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Chapter 3, you, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, patience, faith, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings. What kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra? The persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. I'll bet you never hear those words come out of Joel Osteen's mouth. I'll bet you all the money I have in the world. I'm not supposed to bet, but it's not even a bet. It's not a gamble. And Paul here is not talking just about the people of the world who will cause hardship and suffering for, but he's talking about false believers in the church who will cause trouble. Warren Wiersbe correctly reminds that it was the religious crowd that crucified Christ and the same sorts of folks who persecuted Paul and had him arrested. Swindoll encourages, while also sharing the truth, every pastor can expect to walk in the way of suffering. He'll receive unfair criticism. He'll be misunderstood. People will shut their ears to the truth to chase after myths. and the faithful to the word of God pastor will be characterized by people both outside and even in the church as foolish, outdated, and irrelevant. But, he adds, just as Christ rose from the grave vindicated, so the truth will eventually crush apostasy and myth. Kitchen, though, makes a valid point. Hardship may be the divine slap in the face that keeps a pastor clear-headed in ministry, Third imperative, even if God has not given you the gift of evangelism, we must still testify to the grace that has been shown us in the gospel. Even if God has not gifted you with this spiritual gift of evangelism, we still are responsible, every Christian, to testify when the opportunity arises, in season and out of season, the grace shown us in the gospel. Paul says to Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Evangelist here is a title, or better really, a gifting of special Holy Spirit empowered ability to share the gospel message of Christ with power and effectiveness. Paul was undoubtedly an evangelist, although he never anywhere in the scriptures claims the title for himself. In fact, the word's only used three times in the scriptures, even though the verb for an evangelize is used countless scores times. Philip is the only person who is given this title in the Bible, and he's described that way in Acts 21 in verse eight, and in verse four, verses 11 and 12 of Ephesians four, we find that Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, same word, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Now, there are some commentators that scoff at the idea that is held by many of us that Timothy did not have the gift of evangelism. In their eyes, Paul's just underscoring the importance of evangelism. This is one that I will categorically disagree with the commentators on, okay? It's nonsense. Those commentators who write that Timothy had the gift of evangelism obviously do not personally know anyone who has the gift of evangelism. Because you don't have to tell someone with the gift to do the work of an evangelism. You just don't need to do it. It's what they live for. It's what charges them up, no matter how naturally shy they might be. If you give a person with the gift of evangelism the opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ, they'll wear your ear off. And they'll light up doing it. Paul had to tell Timothy because he obviously didn't have that gift. Paul would have just reaffirmed it if he had the gift. He would have said, keep evangelizing as you have been. You've been doing a great job, Timothy. No, obviously Timothy needed to be reminded that making disciples begins with winning converts. Okay? We have a command by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 28. It's called the Great Commission. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, make disciples of all nations. I knew I was going to do that. Go ye therefore. Oh, now I'm totally. How embarrassing is that church when the pastor has a brain lock? But we're gonna look it up because it's that important. Matthew 28. Beginning in verse 18, Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples. You do that first by making converts of all nations, baptizing them, that's what you do after you've made a convert, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there's the nature of God, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And that would be a major, major problem were it not for the last part of verse 20. Surely, I, Jesus said, am with you always, even unto the end of the age. Those with the gift of evangelism don't need to be told to use it because to use that gift fulfills them. Finally, Paul instructs Timothy and all of us, fully carry out all the ministry that has been entrusted to you. He writes, fulfill your ministry. That word speaks of completeness, fullness in every aspect of Timothy's service to the Lord. He's been instructing and reminding Timothy of what he needs to do throughout these two letters sent to encourage the younger man to remain faithful. Don't give up in spite of the hardship. Keep at it. Do so with excellence. For example, from chapter 2 of this letter Paul wrote, in a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay. Some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy and useful to the master, prepared to do any good work, flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind, kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading to knowledge of the truth and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. Paul's last and final words of instruction here regarding Timothy's ministry given in this chapter four, speak of his charge to see the work done for the Lord is both complete and effective. That's the call for all of us as followers of Christ because scripture tells us we are God's handiwork. created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Good works are not the reason for our salvation. We don't keep it through good works, but as a result of our salvation, there are good works expected of us. And each of us has unique work to do in the Lord's kingdom. We're to do it faithfully, we're to do it diligently, and we're to do it as excellently as possible so that the Lord Jesus is glorified in our lives. The communion table is a reminder of that.