In our Bible survey, we come to 2 Timothy, Paul's last will and testament. This is Paul's final epistle. While it may not be in order of how the Bible books are set here, Titus was written before Timothy. Timothy was the last prison epistle, the last epistle written by Paul. Written from prison in Rome in AD 67. and he is about to be martyred by Nero. This is amidst a general time of persecution for all Christians in Rome, and so this is Paul's last word to the Church, and to his co-worker, his most faithful co-worker, Timothy. And the background is the great fire of Rome in AD 64. Nero, one of the most brutal, sadistic, evil emperors ever, a man who could murder his own mother. Nero, who was a serious pervert. In fact, it's extraordinary how most of the Caesars of Rome were homosexual and were violent persecutors of the Church. Extraordinary, considering how it seems today that the gay GB and the pink imposition are going to be the source of a lot of persecution of Christians today. like they are the new wave of persecution. But originally, the original persecutors of the Church in the Roman Empire were virtually all homosexuals and serious perverts of the most twisted and vulgar kind. And Nero was one of those. Nero fancied himself a great poet and singer and musician, and he believed that the backdrop of the burning of Rome was the best backdrop for him, playing on his heart, literally. He literally fiddled while Rome burned. And our knowledge of this is mostly from the Roman historian Tacitus. And Tacitus records that Caesar, in wanting to demolished Rome and rebuilt a more grand city and was voted against by the Senate. He sent out his arsonists to burn down the huge inner city and he sat atop in his palace watching this and playing the harp, believing that this was the most wonderful backdrop to his musical abilities. A serious megalomaniac and psychopath of high order. And while the whole city was ablaze, the people of course of Rome got furious and they were wanting to blame him. And so, typical of politicians of all ages, Nero needed a scapegoat. He needed to distract them from his crime and so he blamed everything on the Christians. that Christians were a new and unknown misunderstood sect and therefore they made a very convenient scapegoat and distraction smoke screen for Nero that he could get away with his colossal crime. Christians were accused at that time of being atheists. That may surprise one to know that the original Christians were called atheists but Rome believed in many gods and the Christians refused to believe in or worship any of them and so Christians are called atheists because Christians did not believe in the gods. Also Christians were accused of cannibalism because they heard that Christians ate the body and blood of somebody at their secret services that they had and therefore cannibalism was generally believed. Christians are cannibals. They also accused Christians of incest because they heard that Christians married their brothers and sisters, which, of course, all Christians referring to one another as brothers and sisters. You can see how it was easy to have this disinformation and to be able to slander the Christians. So these Christians are considered a vile and vulgar sect by people who are committing all kinds of perversions and orgies, mind you. But somehow or another, they were able to call the Christians atheists, cannibals, and guilty of vile incest. and also responsible for the great fire of Rome, very conveniently. And so Nero was able to deflect and distract the citizens of Rome from his crime, and the people went to persecute the Christians in the most brutal way. Christians were arrested and they were put to death in cruel ways. They were crucified. They were doused in pitch and set alight. That's where the term Roman candle comes from. A burning human being was called a Roman candle. And today we still speak about Roman candles. And Nero used to ride around in his chariot at night amongst all the burning Christians, set alight at night to make a more interesting spectacle, so that he could literally light up his garden and so on with burning Christians. During this time, Paul is rearrested. So the original prison epistles were written for Paul's original arrest where he was arrested by Jews in Jerusalem, accusations that he's causing trouble, he appealed to Caesar, he went to Rome and he was discharged after two years arrested in Rome. And then he was out doing further ministry and probably in Troas was arrested, brought back to Rome, because it was considered, as he is the most famous leader of the Christians, that he should be also put to death for the crime of burning down Rome. So it was at about this time that the Apostle Peter was also brought to Rome and executed, but him being a non-Roman, they crucified him. Peter insisted that he couldn't and wasn't worthy to die the same death as his master, so they crucified him upside down on his request. Paul, being a Roman citizen, had the right to ask for a more merciful death, which was decapitation. That he would be decapitated either by a sword or an axe, probably with a sword. So it's at this junction, after the Great Fire of Rome, tremendous persecution. It looks like Christianity is being exterminated, wiped out, and yet you don't get that sense of despair and defeat in Second Timothy. You get a tremendous triumphal shout of victory. You can see here the Apostle Paul is in no way discouraged, even though he's faced with apostasy, he's faced with many people abandoning him, many of the people have turned away from him, it even says all of Asia have turned away from him, and that he's been abandoned, he's the abandoned apostle, under sentence of death, about to be executed, and yet this book is just an extraordinary, victorious, triumphant epistle of your duty and your destiny in the light of eternity. It starts out in 2 Timothy 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. So he's facing death and he's seeing the promise of life. He writes to Timothy, a beloved son. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse 3. I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my forefathers did. Without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers day and night. Verse four, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy. Verse five, when a call to remembrance, the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Louis, and your mother, Eunice, and I'm persuaded is in you also. So Timothy's got a great heritage. He's got a believing mother. He has a believing grandmother. He's been brought up in a faith. He's known the scripture since his youth. He was brought to the Lord by Paul when he was ministering on his second missionary journey and he became a co-worker. He was brought up in the Old Testament scriptures by his mother and grandmother. Now he's been brought into New Testament faith in Christ. He's been a co-worker of the Apostle Paul, left responsible for the largest group of Christians in all the world at that time in Ephesus. Massive church, probably something like hundred or more home churches, because they couldn't have a building at that time of persecution. And he's responsible for all the bishops and deacons in Ephesus, who most of them are probably older than him. And so continually in 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy, Paul is seeking to encourage Timothy, who's doubtless feeling inadequate, intimidated, maybe he's being made to feel embarrassed because he's so young and because he's younger than the people he's leading. And so continually you can see the emphasis on being bold, being brave, to do his duty, to fulfill all his ministry. And you also see here a continual theme in 2 Timothy about do not be ashamed. Paul's about to die a criminal's death. Christians are being accused of being not just traitors, but arsonists now. Atheistic, cannibalistic, incense-committing arsonists who burned down Rome, caused a lot of suffering. And you could imagine in that age, it was possible for many Christians to succumb to guilt manipulation and psychological warfare from the enemy, that they would be ashamed. But he's saying, no, you must glory in our sufferings. We're sharing the sufferings of Christ. It's a privilege to suffer for Christ. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6. Verse 6 is speaking about keeping ablaze the gift that God's given you. The stirring up is speaking, it's a term of stoking the fire. the fire embers are dying up and you're maybe heaping the coals together more, stoking up the fire that the fire will burst into more flame, maybe the fire's dying out. And so the gift you've given is described like a fire. And you can't teach a gift of God as much as it's caught rather than taught. You have that gift, but you've got to stir up the flame. And so throughout the scripture we hear warnings, do not quench the Holy Spirit. To quench the Holy Spirit is like quenching a fire, throwing a bucket of water over the fire, or putting a blanket over the fire, a damp blanket, in order to put out the flame. And so our gifts that God has given us is described here in terms of a flame, which is contagious. You can't teach a flame, but you can spread it, like candles being One candle lighting another candle, spreading it out. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You can imagine at this time of persecution, apostasy, intimidation, terror, it would be easy to be tempted to fear. But Paul is reminding Timothy and us God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear is not coming from God. In fact, from God we learn only to fear Him and to skip the rest. To fear God, we're freed from the fear of man. The reverential awe and respect and worship of God frees us from the fear of man. The fear of man is a snare. If we become people pleasers, then we will find ourselves living under continual oppression. because Satan is a hard taskmaster and people can be very exploitative and manipulative. So fear God and you're freed from the fear of man. The title of the history of the reconnaissance commander of the special forces of Salaf is, We Fear Naught But God. And that's the right attitude of a Christian. You can kneel before God, you can stand before any man. Verse 8, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. So refuse to be guilt manipulated. resist the psychological warfare against you. Do not give in to this worldly attempt to make you ashamed of the Gospel and ashamed of Christ and ashamed of the Apostle Paul and ashamed of those Christians who are all being wrongly, falsely accused and falsely condemned and viciously persecuted in Rome at this time for a crime which everyone, even the Roman historian Tacitus saw was done by Caesar himself, by Nero and his arsonists, and blamed on the Christians. But how many Christians give in to guilt manipulation and false guilt today? Which makes you inadequate to respond, it paralyzes you into inactivity, which is what it's meant to do of course. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose, with grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. We have been predestined before time began, before the creation of the world. Verse 10. But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He's facing death, he's facing condemnation, but he's looking forward to life and immortality, which is the result of the Gospel. Verse 11, To which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. So you can see the Apostle Paul has a threefold ministry. He's a preacher of the gospel. He's an apostle, which is another word for a sent one, or you could use the word missionary. Not that a missionary has apostolic authority, but apostle is the very same word, one who is sent, which we get the word missio and missionary, one who is sent. Of course, not with a capital. We may have people who have an apostolic calling today, but that's with a small a. Nobody has the authority of an apostle, aside from the twelve chosen by Christ. And of course one of those was Judas, but Paul plainly was chosen by God to replace him. Here you'll get a bit of disagreements amongst some Christians. Those who believe in apostolic succession, like the Anglicans, will believe that Matthias was the twelfth apostle. those who would be more congregational self-government would say well the church might have chosen Matthias but God chose Paul to replace Judas. Are you seeing the authority coming more from the church or more from the Lord? So Christians will disagree on that but when a scripture speaks about in heaven there the 12 stones with the name of an apostle each Well is it going to be, is the 12th one going to be Matthias or is it going to be Paul? Well considering Paul was used to write a vast amount of the New Testament I don't think there's any question in my mind. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12. For this reason I also suffer those things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. should recognize immediately there's a hymn that sings this very verse and we'll conclude with that today later as well. Notice here he's at a a place where he's been wrongly condemned. He's about to be executed, a shameful criminal's death for a terrible atrocity and crime, the fire of Rome. And he says, nevertheless, I am not ashamed. There might be many people ashamed of him. Many of his co-workers have distanced themselves from him and fled from him. He's been abandoned by almost everyone. But he says, I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that that I've committed unto him against that day. What day? Day of Judgment, Day of Resurrection, the Day of the Lord's Return. He's sick of the last day in that sense. Verse 13, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 13. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Again, it's like the emphasis in 1 Timothy. Stand fast. Hold fast. Hold fast to the pattern of sound words. So, he's speaking about good doctrine. He's speaking about your doctrine and your duty. Your duty is to stand fast in the light of the doctrine that you hold. Don't let anyone take that away from you. 2 Timothy 1 Verse 14, that good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you have been given a treasure, you've been entrusted with a great trust to guard and protect the faith, to protect the Word of God, to keep these words, these doctrines, and to entrust them to others. But your first duty is stand fast and that good thing is the Word of God, contend for the faith. Verse 15, This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Homogenes. Notice how he names names. He's been deserted by his Asiatic co-workers and he names two of them who are particularly difficult and dangerous and he gives more details later. Imagine being deserted in your greatest hour of need, but that's normal. But Lord Jesus himself, in the garden of Gethsemane, as he asked the disciples to pray with him, they all fell asleep. And when he came to be arrested, they all fled. And only John went all the way to the cross and stood with the woman disciples at the foot of the cross and identified with Jesus in his greatest hour of need and disgrace. disgrace in the eyes of the world that is. And so Paul finds the same in a lot of people, fair-weather friends, fleeing during the time of need. Verse 16 of chapter 1, the Lord brought mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. So Anesiphorus is mentioned as an extraordinary individual and his whole household, who often refreshed him means provide him with hospitality. and he was not ashamed of my chains." It must be quite terrible at a time of your disgrace in the eyes of the world to have believers who don't feel that they can stand with you at that time. Richard von Brunt, who wrote Tortured for Christ and experienced 14 years imprisonment in Romania, he speaks about that too, how they'd regularly try to make them feel ashamed of. And what did they have to be ashamed of? They were being true to God, But yes, there were lawbreakers in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the Communist Party who were oppressing them in Romania. But this is what they often want to do. They want you to feel ashamed. It's not enough for them to defeat you, murder you, falsely accuse you, steal your possessions and so on. They want to take away your good name. They even want to take away your peace of mind, your good conscience, and to take away your joy. This is the purpose of propaganda, guilt manipulation, psychological warfare, which Nero was an expert at. Verse 18, 2 Timothy 1 verse 18, The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus. Again, remember, Timothy's at Ephesus and so everything is relating to that massive work in this epicenter of Christianity in the first century church where the 8% of Christians have moved from Jerusalem to Antioch, and now to move from Antioch to Ephesus. Ephesus is the largest and fastest growing church in the world at that time. And Timothy is left responsible to guide, direct, disciple, and train them. And he's about to lose his mentor in the faith, the Apostle Paul. So Paul is doing everything he can to encourage him to stand fast. Duty and destiny. We get to chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. verses one to six. Let me read that in full first. You therefore my son be strong and a great citizen Christ Jesus and the things that you've heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one in engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer must be first to partake of the crops." So that's 2 Timothy 2, 1-6. Immensely powerful. Notice here that we are called to be those who serve God as first of all Timothy is a son chapter 2 verse 1 a son chapter 2 verse 3 to 4 as a soldier chapter 2 verse 5 as an athlete verse 6 as a farmer and then we'll see just now in verse 15 as a worker and verse 24 as a servant son, soldier, athlete, farmer, worker, servant The first speaks of relationship, and the rest speaks of duty, and sacrifice, and hard work, and faithfulness. Verse 2, 2 Timothy 2.2, is the foundational verse for Evangelism Explosion, which Dr. James Kennedy founded, one of the most effective evangelistic methods ever. 2 Timothy 2.2, the things that you've heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. God is a God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, multi-generational. Here's Paul entrusting to Timothy, and Timothy to entrust to faithful men, and those faithful men must entrust to other faithful men. That's actually four generations. We just think multi-generationally. We're not just to think for our time. This is the terrible side effects of short-term, end-times obsession, these people who are into rapture fever, we're living in the last days and last hour, Jesus coming soon, before the end of this year, and so on and so forth. They don't think multi-generationally. They're not even thinking of next year in many cases. I was like that the first few years as a Christian. so caught up in end-time speculations and date-setting, I couldn't think of getting to Bible college, I couldn't think in terms of marriage, couldn't think in terms of children, because this is not just the last days, these are the last hours. I mean, we're at the very end, and then you don't think long-term. and then it's just a matter of a prefab or a rent instead of building for the future and leaving a legacy. Those people who built the cathedrals had a long-term vision. Cathedrals took three generations to build. The grandfathers may have laid the foundations and the fathers may have built a lot of the building, but it was the grandchildren who built the spires to the top. It was a 70 to 100 year project to build cathedrals. You look at some of the things that we build today, short-sighted, shallow, with very little looking for the future. And we're not just talking about architecture and buildings, but laws, educational institutions, in terms of mission projects and goals. Today many Christians are satisfied with an evangelistic crusade. But previous generations built cathedrals, universities, theological seminaries, planted mission stations. They had a vision for the next generation and the generation after that and further. Today we can go to Zurich and see Grussmünster, the very same cathedral where Ulrich Zwingli ministered 500 years ago. you can go to Vilthaus and see the house in which Schlingli was born. This wooden house is still standing and solid in the Alps, a thousand meters up. It's in the snow belt in the winter. You can go to Wittenberg and see the house where Luther lived 500 years ago, and the church where he ministered 500 years ago. They're built to last. And what a shame that things today often are falling apart within the first few decades of them being built, which shows not just a shoddy workmanship and a bad lack of Christian work ethic, but a lack of vision. We're told to be diligent, to present ourselves as proof to God of work that does not need to be ashamed. rightly dividing the word of truth. Our doctrine will determine our duty and our destiny. So here the Apostle Paul is saying you must take what I've taught you and you must teach others and you must train them to be capable of training others also. Multi-generational and this is the vision of EE and as James Kennedy pointed out if you were a Billy Graham and you were able to fill a stadium and preach to those people. Every year, filling a stadium and preaching to people, you wouldn't reach as many people as if you would evangelize each year, winning one disciple, who would be trained to disciple others, because next year there'd be two of you. would be four, but that doesn't sound very impressive for the first year, but the ministry of multiplication is more powerful in long term than the ministry of addition, and we read not just that God added to the church in the book of Acts, but we also read that the Lord multiplied for the church. You can add through evangelism, but you multiply through discipleship, and so our vision has to be to train trainers, each one reach one, each one win one, each one disciple one, and then that disciple must disciple others. We're not just to win converts, we're to make disciples. This is the vision of multiplication. Now, when we get to verse 3 and 4, that's awfully meaningful to me, because on the night of my baptism in 1977, Reverend Doc Watson, the pastor who discipled me, gave me this verse on a card. He read it out before the baptism, This was what he gave me. You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of civilian life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So 2 Timothy 2, verse 3 and 4 was given to me as my baptismal commission from my pastor. Later on, in 1980, in the 6th South African Infantry, a commanding officer gave us all a card with 2 Timothy 2 verse 3, 4, Operation Smokeshore. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier to Christ Jesus. It was a tradition in the South African army that the commanding officer would put a prayer and a verse on a card, get it printed and given to each soldier before an operation across the border. So that verse has been given to me on two very serious occasions in my life before. Endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. As Christians we are called to commitment, self-sacrifice. A soldier has to be willing to be expendable. We saw this and it was entrenched in our thinking in obstacle course. When you came to the role of barbed wire, the first soldier has to fling himself on the barbed wire. and the others use you as a springboard. You can't stop, get the wire cutters or, seconds count, lives at stake. If it's an obstacle like barbed wire, maybe there's a machine gun nest covering it, they have to get over fast, and each one behind puts a foot in the small of your back, hopefully it's small of your back, on top of your webbing, and springboard's over, and you're bouncing up and down on the barbed wire, and of course, each time, you can feel those bars sticking into you more, but, and the last person to get over grabs you by, the webbing and pulls you over, so you go head over heels, and then you're up and running, because seconds come after the course. This is what we had to do. We had to continually recognize that in order to attain your objectives, you have to be willing to be expendable, because the cause is more important than the individual. This is the mindset. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. And we shouldn't get entangled in civilian affairs because we want to please our commanding officer. is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not like many others who lead from the rear and who sit in some air-conditioned office somewhere giving orders to people far in front. Our Lord led by example. He calls us to do nothing that He has not done Himself. He Himself showed us the example and He led from the front. Again, there's a difference between the shepherds of the Middle East and the shepherd that you had in Israel. In Africa, you can see the average shepherd will lead from behind with a stick, beating the sheep or the goats, chasing them in front. But the shepherds in Israel in the Middle East tended to lead from the front, and they always picked the best grazing choice dainties and had them in their hand and in their pocket and the sheep that were closer to them they fed. So the sheep would follow them because of how they blessed and rewarded them. So a Middle Eastern shepherd tends to lead in front and the sheep follow. Whereas the African shepherds tend to walk from behind and whack the sheep. I'm afraid you can see some pastoral differences in that too. We need to lead from the front and we need to be examples. Verse 5, 2 Timothy 2, verse 5. If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Today, we put a medal around a person. Maybe a gold medal if it's Olympics and he's got the first place. But the Roman way was to give a crown, a wreath, that they wore. That symbolized that they had been crowned with success. Such as we've seen Ben Hur as an example. And here the Lord, he's compared being a Christian with being a soldier, and now he compares it with being an athlete. Athletes need discipline, dedication, hard work, repetition, up before the chickens, running early, doing whatever exercise needed, limiting one's diet, saying no to parting late, because how are you going to win the Olympics or whatever the race may be, unless you're a disciplined athlete? And Christianity requires the same kind of dedication, training and energy and focus. And then he used the example of a hardworking farmer. The farmers must get up early. They must milk the cows, plough the fields, plant the seeds, cultivate, irrigate, whatever's got to be done. And they've got to harvest at the right time. It doesn't matter if you're not feeding well or if you're sick. When the time of harvest comes, you've got to be out there harvesting and so on. You cannot just milk the cows when you feel like it. Cows need to be milked every day. In fact, I'm told by good dairy people that you actually need to milk them twice a day. And the way you milk the cows makes a huge difference, both in terms of the hygiene of the milk, and also how much milk the cow will release. And, for example, in the Quest of Intermission, people explain that they found that men generally made very bad milkers of cows. They found that they were a bit too rough, and that the women got more milk out of the cows by treating them more tenderly, and so on. Then you've got to consider the thing of hygiene. How the cow might have been lying in the mud and so on. and how you can't just take the first part of the milk which might have had some dirt up the udder. You must see that that goes into a side dish, how they're cleaned, how they're cared for. And this makes a huge difference to the taste and also the hygiene and whether the person drinking the milk might get sick or not. As Martin Luther said, a dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God. In fact, everything we do should be done to the glory of God. So we're meant to be sons, soldiers, athletes, farmers, and later we'll read workers and servants as well. There's a need for us to work. This kind of picture of Christianity, these metaphors of Christianity, is the very antithesis of what you're getting today, where it all seems to be hairy fairy imagination, shouting, screaming, dancing, and speaking things into existence, and banging a fist and making a noise. That's not the picture we're getting in Timothy. Timothy is to be producing people with a real relationship with God, who've got the same self-sacrifice as a soldier, the same kind of discipline, training as an athlete, the same kind of hard work ethic of a farmer. Let me go to verse 7, 2 Timothy 3 verse 7. Consider what I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. Verse 8, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Why does he bring this up? Jesus is not only the son of Abraham destined to the altar of the cross, but he's the son of David destined to the throne and the crown. He's about to be killed for his faith. He's about to follow Christ in terms of the sufferings, in terms of the altar. But he's looking beyond the fact, because beyond the cross was the crown. Jesus is not only the son of Abraham, he's the son of David. He's destined as king of kings, lord of lords, to be the ultimate victor. And so he's reminding them that Jesus has been raised from dead and so will I. This is not the end. Death for the Christian is not the end, it's actually the beginning of eternal life. to Timothy 2 verse 9, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not chained. Martin Luther said, as he is heading for Worms for his trial at the hands of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, they remembered that Huss had been burned at Constance. Professor Younghorst, the reformer, the pre-reformer. Now Martin Luther is going probably to the same fate. And as Martin Luther said, though there be as many devils and worms as there are tiles on the roofs, I will go. And though the works of Hass was burned, the truth was not burned, and the gospel was not burned. And so, yes, you may burn me, but you can't burn the gospel. As Professor Hass said, truth conquers. You cannot destroy the truth just by burning my books. You can put Paul in chains but you can't chain the Word of God. Verse 10. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect. For the church. that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then in verse 11, 12 and 13 we get Paul reciting what was probably either hymn or maybe it was a liturgy that people recited in church. This is a faithful saying. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Then verse 14, 2 Timothy 2 verse 14, remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers. You get those people who just like arguing and they'll pick a fight about nothing. I remember times when we were about to march to Parliament in 1995 We had six meetings at the same AFM church in Goodwood where we were for this parliamentary hearing just a few weeks ago. And there was an argument for about three hours about one word. We wanted in our submission poem to speak about the constitutional start of in humble submission to Almighty God, and others want to argue that should say trident God. Now, considering that the Bible used the terms Almighty God, God refers to himself as Almighty God, and bearing in mind that not everyone in this country is a Trinitarian believer, we thought more appropriate, most of us, to have Almighty God. which also is what we've had since 1961 in the Constitution. Why should we change this? But there were people willing to argue for hours on one word. And there are arguments that are important, but there are other arguments that might just be unnecessarily divisive. And we warned, do not strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of your heroes. And you can see some people are very good in many churches and arguing, arguing, arguing, but they don't get out there and actually do the work that's got to be done. There is an argument that could be useful, but there's a lot of others that are to no profit. Here's a great verse, 2 Timothy 2 verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Here you see work ethic, but you also see he's speaking about correct Bible study and that our approval first and foremost must come from God. The fact that we're disapproved of by the government or by society as a whole is not so important. but we should be concerned about the one opinion that really counts, the eternal judge on death judgment, the king of kings and lord of lords. His approval is the one you should be seeking. You want to hear, well done, good and faithful servant on last day. You do not want to hear the part from me, cursed at the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. So he reminds Timothy, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of what the world's trying to do to you. You may be ashamed before God if you don't free yourself from the fear of man now. Verse 16, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Profane and idle babblings, is there not a lot of that going on all around, even our churches today? We need workers who will be diligent to study, to show themselves approved unto God, which is what the new book, Biblical Preaching Handbook has been written for, to encourage pastors to be biblical preachers, to preach from the Bible rather than their own imaginations, and what they picked up from TVM. Profane babblings and idle talk we should avoid. Shun. Verse 17. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Phyllites are of this sort. So again, Paul names names. Hymenaeus and Phyllites. They are spreading a message that's like cancer. What is a cancer? Cancers are cells that do nothing to help the health of the body. That's why we say the middle letters of cancer are A and C. just blood-sucking parasites, like poly-tics, poly-mini-tics, blood-sucking parasites. And so you've got this cancerous growth. A cancer is a tumor that does not contribute to the health of the body, but breaks down the health of the body. And so you get some people in the church who are not contributing to the health of the body of Christ, to the spread of the gospel, to seeking first God's kingdom. What they're doing is actually breaking things down. And so we read in verse 18, they have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and they overthrow the faith of the Son. So he's warning about people, and again he's naming names. Other people say you should never name names. Well, Paul does in the Bible. Verse 19, nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands. The Lord knows those who are His. Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Then we've got this tremendous picture. In a great, so 2 Timothy 2 in verse 20 to 24. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, satisfied and useful to the master. Prepare for every good work. Flee youthful lusts. but pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient." So here you see the church is depicted like a large house. In a large house you've got all kinds of vessels. You've got buckets that are used to carry water backwards and forwards these days. You've got mugs for your tea or coffee. You've got plates that you eat off. You've got all kinds of vessels in the house. Now some things are made, if you're a very wealthy house, maybe of silver or gold. And others are made of clay. In fact, these days, lots are made of plastic. And they aren't all of the same value and they aren't all for the same purpose. So, what he's saying is, if you want to be used by the Master, you must be sanctified, useful, prepared for every good work. You are not going to use the bucket you use to slosh dirty water around in for eating. What you eat has a high standard of workmanship and of cleanliness. The Lord will use you for his purposes, for the extension of his kingdom's own, if you will be sanctified, meaning set apart, not available for use by the world. Useful to the master, prepared for every good work. And to do this, he says, verse 20, flee youthful lust, pursue righteousness, pursue faith, love and peace. Call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Your attitudes matter. And again, And again, he reminds again, avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing they only generate strife. There are some things that aren't worth getting involved in arguments on. We've got to be able to teach. We shouldn't be busy quarrelling. It's one thing to argue with people about important things, nothing to quarrel to no effect. Sometimes the best thing to do with an argument is walk away from it. And then we conclude chapter 2 in verse 25 and 26. In humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. So 2 Timothy 2, 25 to 26, reminds us that faith and repentance are a gift of God. God needs to grant us this. Again and again we see it's not that we chose God, but that he chose us. It's not that we found God, but he found us. We were lost, not him. It's not that I believe and repent and then God rewards me with regeneration. God grants me regeneration by grace alone. And that enables me to repent of my sins and put my faith in Christ. There's no room for boasting. None. And this reminds us that we were also once deceived and trapped by the devil. So let us be patient in correcting those in opposition to us. How long were we in opposition? How long did it take us to get to the point of believing what we do? We should remember that it is God who grants repentance. So let's be patient in correcting those who disagree, that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will which reminds us we were once captive of the devil and we were out of our mind we had to come to our senses the amount of times that we argued against the very positions we now stand by and so Paul who once was a persecutor of the church is reminding let's be patient as we correct those who oppose us because they might be our future brothers and sisters in the faith to be able to recognize we're in a spiritual war. There's so many emphases about that. Then we've got to the middle of the book, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and 2. We've looked at that, our duty and destiny in the light of eternity. Next week we'll continue with chapter 3 and 4. We've seen that spiritual warfare is very real. We must identify false teaching. We must fan into flames the gift that God has given us. We need to Hold fast to the truth and endure hardship as good soldiers of Christ Jesus, following righteousness, studying the scriptures, holding fast to the scriptures, exposing those who oppose the scriptures. Let us pray. Lord God, we want to thank you and praise you for your word. We want to thank you for this tremendous privilege we have of being your sons and daughters, your servants and soldiers. Athletes and farmers in the faith, workers who do not need to be ashamed, help us, Lord God, that we would not give in to a spirit of fear, but recognize that you have given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. We know whom we have believed. We pray, Lord, that you'd enable us to be good workers, approved to you, who do not need to be ashamed, as we rightly divide and understand the word of truth. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.