So in our Bible survey we come to the second part of 2 Timothy. We dealt the last time with the first two chapters of 2 Timothy, so now 2 Timothy chapters 3 and 4. It starts off with total depravity, exposing the perilous times we live in. 2 Timothy 3 verse But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. From such people turn away." These first five verses of 2 Timothy 3 sound like a description of our times. It sounds like our country, our continent, our world, 21st century, and yet this was written 2,000 years ago. Human nature doesn't change, and that's why the Bible is applicable and relevant to every time and era. And here you see total depravity, the tea and tulip spelled out, the perilous times. Have we ever been in a time where people are more in love with themselves? self-actualization, selfishness, all kinds of secular humanist hedonistic ideologies, speaking about self-actualization, and you ask people in the streets, would you consider yourself to be a good person? I'm a very good person, most people say. There's never been a time where people seem to be so completely full of themselves, so self-centered and self-absorbed, self-congratulatory even, and lovers of money. talk about lovers of money, there is a materialistic obsession, which is why places like Grand West, or as we call it, Grand Theft, do so well. Because there are greedy people who are lovers of money who, you could win a million, yes, you could lose everything you've got as well. In fact, the odds against people winning, for example, the lottery, are so cruelly false that it basically is theft by consent. You've got more chance, you've got five times more chance being struck by lightning than winning the lottery. And yet people, because of their love of money, are willing to risk everything. And their families will suffer. Their children will starve. But they will gamble. Boasters. We are living in a time of extreme boasting. And how many films, you're the best, the very best, we're the best, I'm the best, everything. They're not just good, they're the best. It's arrogance. Proud. extreme pride. Blasphemous. We have never had a bigger blasphemy industry in the history of the world than what Hollywood is. Hollywood hates Christ. They hate the name of Christ. They're not taking the name of Allah, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, Brahma, Siva in vain. No, goodness me, it's not Apollo and Zeus. It's the name of Jesus Christ that they hate. And we're living in a time where The government seems to think that blasphemy is free speech. But you're not allowed to say something that they consider hate speech, because free speech that the powers that be don't like is called hate speech. And so pornography is free speech, blasphemy is free speech, but don't you dare slander me, or don't you say something that's going to hurt my feelings, or offend my sensibilities, or be politically incorrect. Insane! Disobedience of parents, well that's industry now of Hollywood as well and many are doing their homework on how to be disobedient to their parents and roll their eyes at their parents in disrespect. Unthankful. We probably are living in one of the most entitled ages in history, where people think everyone owes them something, and God owes them so much too, but they don't owe God any thanks, or any gratitude. So much so that Cape Town could be complaining about lack of rain, but not thank God when the rain came, and so on. Living in a very entitled, unthankful age. Unholy? Well, without a doubt. Verse 3 speaks about unloving. In the King James it says, without natural affection. We certainly have an age where people have lost natural affection. When millions upon millions of mothers can abort their own babies. Talk about without natural affection. The Bible even says, can a mother forget her child? Which you think, well of course not. But then it follows on and says, well even if she does, the Lord will not forget you. And now we see there are mothers, by the millions, who think it is their constitutional right to be able to kill their babies. And there are those who boast about it. In fact, they've got a whole movement now about shouting out your pride about your abortion. Talk about without natural love. And of course, without natural love can also apply to the perverts, the gay GB, the pink inquisition, the gender confusion, LGBTQ, R, S, whatever, they now say there's 26 different genders. I don't know how they get that. I can only see two. Unforgiving. Well, definitely unforgiving. Talk about people who, they don't have any sense of their own guilt, but they're never willing to forgive anyone else who might have done them wrong, whether they did or not, or their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents might have done something wrong to somebody who might have been related to them, we don't know. But anyway, they are never forgiving about anything. And I know, because I've heard, for example, as long as I have been a Christian, which is 41 years, I've heard Dutch Reformed Germany standing up at missions conferences and church conferences apologizing for apartheid. And do you think there's any forgiveness? Not in your life. Not that I think anyone even understands what a contact was. They talked about it being... racial superiority, whereas actually it was nothing other than attempted survival in a violent, vicious continent in the context of the Mau Mau in Kenya and the Simbas in Congo and massacres all over the continent. It's not surprising that South Africa did try to tether the lager and to try and protect themselves and say, how can we be able to all survive and work together? And whether they did it right or wrong, One cannot question the motives amidst the context that survival... And when some people say, oh well, you know, this confiscation without compensation, it's just reverse apartheid. No, not really. If it was reverse apartheid, they would be building the white stadiums and hospitals and schools and swimming pools and hospitals and every kind of facility and... we wouldn't be paying any taxes and we would be getting everything for free and we'd have our own countries and own areas where they'd build our parliaments and where we could elect our own leaders and rule ourselves in our own area, where no one else would be allowed to live or be able to establish businesses and so on. That could be reverse-apartheid. So this idea that we can sing genocidal hate songs murder and torture people, and then call it reverse. That's hardly reverse at all. This is something so completely akin. Considering the fact that so many Salafis spoke against, fought against, opposed apartheid, and now the very people who have stayed to make it work are the ones to be blamed for what some other people may or may not have done, but the vast majority of the people complaining about being victims weren't even allowed at the time. So what are they talking about? But we're talking about an unforgiving, boastful, proud, selfish attitude. Slanderous? Well, slander has become an art form. Slandering whole people? not only whole nations like Germany or South Africa and the peoples like the Afrikaner, the Boers, but entire churches and in fact all Christians, all evangelicals being slandered by Hollywood, by textbooks. There is a whole industry out there to guilt manipulate people. So we're living in an age of brutal, savage, hatred, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous. They are inventing crimes. and accusing people who never did the crime, and the modern day jurisdictions, people who never were the victims, of things that may not have even happened, in many cases. And then it speaks about being without self-control. We're living in an age without self-control, in so many ways. And they discourage self-control. We've just had people celebrating Kofi Annan. That's what a wonderful, tremendous person Kofi Annan was. And Kofi Annan required Every UN peacekeeper soldier to be issued with a condom a day while in peacekeeping missions. What on earth does this have to do with peacekeeping? Whatever happened to self-control? Whatever happened to standards? Real armies used to threaten firing squad for soldiers who abused the local population, for example. That's what real soldiers would do. But of course the UN are not brutal. Well, we don't need to dwell too much on brutal, because we know the savagery of terrorists, farm attackers, and gangsters and criminals around that make life miserable for our people. Very brutal. Despises of good. There is a great despising of holiness. You hear the... Holy is a four-letter word in many churches today. There's this despising of the Puritans, the Pilgrims, the Reformers, the saints of old, Christians of the past, a real despising of the good. And the way they will even speak with such contempt of virgins as though it's a dirty word. Despising of good in many ways. Traitors. Well, have we got an age of traitors? People who are willing to sell out their children and their grandchildren's future for the sake of what? Money and a Nobel Peace Prize and so on. Headstrong. Well, this is being really encouraged. Pig-headed, stubborn, headstrong, doesn't matter what the truth is, what is right, what anyone else says, I'm going to go ahead, even if it's going to destroy myself and everyone else around me. They just have a pig-headed headstrongness. Haughty. The arrogance of this age. And you can see it in so much of the TV programs, so many of the politicians. Headstrong. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We've exchanged the pleasure of worship for the worship of pleasure. Hedonism. Living for the moment. Living for now. For me, myself and I. Eat, drink and be merry. The whole thing. Wine, woman and song. The whole attitude has become we will worship pleasure instead of pleasure. have the pleasure of worshipping God, our Creator. Verse 5 speaks about having a form of godliness but denying its real power. We rarely have that and in fact in Acts 19 we see an example of having an out of form religion but denying its real power. We read about in Acts 19 and verse 14 about the seven sons of Sceva, the Jewish high priest. They went to the evil spirit and said, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, we command you to come out. And then we read in Acts 19 and verse 15. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leapt on them and overpowered them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This is an example of an empty religion, a powerless religion. There they were talking about this Jesus whom Paul preaches. The demons definitely knew who Jesus, they know and they tremble. They knew who Paul was, but Paul was well known in hell I'm sure. But the seven sons of Sceva, who were they? They had an outward, empty, powerless religion. And so they could say what they wanted, but the demons thrashed them. Submit to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you. If the devil is not fleeing from us, either we're not submitting to God or we're not resisting the devil, or both. And so we have here in 2 Timothy 3, in the first five verses, such a description of the depravity of man and of the perilous times in which we're living. And this is the context. And in fact, there's other examples in this book as well. It's always good to deal with the negative before you start getting to the positive. Go to verse 13 of chapter 3. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And so that's something else we can see about a perilous and wicked and depraved age, a time of imposters and evil men who both deceive and are deceived. So often we wonder, do these people even believe the lies and propaganda they're speaking? And the answer is, maybe. Some people do, in the end, believe their own propaganda. I don't know that they all believe it, but quite a few probably do. Then you can go on to chapter 4 and verse 10. And you see, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Now, Demas is mentioned in an earlier letter of Paul, as being one of his co-workers. And Demas forsook Paul, deserted him, loving this present world. And you just think of the present world that he loved. It's ruins. You can go to Thessalonica and Rome and all these places and you can see the columns and the ruins and the stones of what used to be that great world that he loved more than the matters of eternity. You're no fool who'd give up what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose. You can't keep the things of this world. He also mentions in verse 14 of chapter 4, Alexander the coppersmith who did me much harm. And back in chapter 3 And verse 3 we read, So you speak about a time when this isn't just in the world, but even in the church, there are people who will seek false teachers who will tell them what the ears are itching to hear. Tickle the ears. with fables and myths, and you just think how much... I wouldn't recommend that you waste your time on it, but if you ever watch any of God.tv, Faith Broadcasting Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, the fables, the myths, you can get summaries of it in The Call for Discernment by Justin Peters. Last night I met the fullness of the Godhead body. An angel took me up by a cable car to heaven and God said to me this, and do you know he's got a horse that's the color of the rainbow and they've got no end of mindless diatribe. Or this idiot youth pastor saying how Jesus came to him asking him for forgiveness. Jesus asked this mindless youth leader for forgiveness, because somebody had hurt those feelings, and when one of my people hurts you, then I hurt you, so will you forgive me? I mean, where do people come with these kind of mindless, idiotic myths, fables, imaginations, blasphemous ideas, and yet there are millions and millions and millions of Christians around the world who tune in, watch this, repeat it, ape it, copy it, and send donations to keep these programs going. It pays because they keep doing it. They fill stadiums with this kind of nonsense, just talking out all kinds of impossible nonsense. Kenneth Copeland speaking about how Jesus asking for advice and him saying, Lord, I don't think it's going to work, you need to do this and this and change the Lord's mind about what is going on in these people's minds. But we have seen a time now when you've got people who hold to the outward form of religion but deny its real power. They are not wanting to endure sound doctrine. In fact, I remember a Miss South Africa years ago giving a testimony in a newspaper saying she's a member of Raymer because they don't teach any doctrine there and they don't criticise her for living with a boyfriend. Well, what a great testimony and endorsement for a church. And, well, that's the kind of member that they attract. They don't teach any doctrine. When we had the Rustenburg Church Conference, Raymer Corley was one of the devotion speakers, and he said in his devotions, it is time for us evangelicals to lay aside doctrine and seek unity with our brothers in the Southern Council of Churches. So I went to him during tea time and said, Ray, I never knew you'd ever taken up doctrine. How could you lay it aside? He laughed and he thought that I was joking, but actually I was telling him the truth. He was a bodybuilder, and yes, he took up a lot of pumping iron, but I don't think he ever picked up doctrine. So he couldn't have laid it aside. To think a person could say, I go to this church because they don't teach any doctrine. There are many people who don't like doctrine. But doctrine is truth. Theology is teaching about God. Why would we not want the truth that sets us free? They will turn aside, they will turn their ears aside from the truth and they will be turned aside to fables. As has been well said by Paul Washer, The people who are listening to false teaching are not just victims. They are, in many cases, enablers. And those false teachers are not just an affliction upon those congregations, they're a judgment upon them, because this is what they want to hear. They want deception. They want lies. They want myths and fables. They don't want the truth. And therefore, when people are under a false teacher, in many cases, they're not just victims of the false teachers, they're the enablers of it as well. So we come back to verse 6, well, verse 5. From such people turn away. And Paul names names. I mean, he mentions Demas in chapter 4, verse 10. He mentions Alexander Coppersmith in 4, verse 14. In chapter 1, verse 15, he had already mentioned Philegius and Hermogenes. So the people say you should never name names when you're dealing with heresy. Paul names names, lots of names. There's no problem naming names so people can know and be warned against it. Just like if you're warning against a disease or a dangerous place or whatever it may be, you're trying to save people's lives. If you're too vague, you're not actually warning anybody. And so there is a place for praying imprecatory prayers against false teachers and there's a place for identifying them to people. So we get here to verse 6. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, never able to come to knowledge of the truth. Now that is quite something. Always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth. Do you know how many people are professional students. I meet them all the time. People who, they've finished multiple degrees and they're still studying. You wonder when are they going to put any of this into practice and do something with this knowledge? And in church history we've got an example of one of the most brilliant minds in church history, John Calvin, who at age 27 was the author of this runaway bestseller And he was confronted by William Farrell, trying to persuade him to stay as the pastor of Geneva. William Farrell, the great evangelist and debater, had won Geneva to Christ, and he knew his limitations. He knew he wasn't the right man to pastor the city. He could win the city to Christ, but he needed a scholar who could disciple the city. And having read the Institutes, he knew John Calvin's a man. John Calvin's forced to divert through Geneva. He only plans to be there one night because of a local war. And immediately when Pierre Ferret hears about this and tells Pharrell, Ferret and Pharrell go round to the hostel where Kelvin was staying and try to persuade him. But the more he explained his plan, the less Kelvin was inclined to stay. He wanted a life of study, seclusion. I mean, he was an academic. And William Farrell at one point stood up to his full height and he bellowed at this younger man about half his age, May God curse your studies. If now in our need. you refuse help to Christ's church. And John Calvin testified that the terror of God came upon him. And he submitted his will to serving the church in Geneva, which he did for the next 26 years. Absolutely vital, in fact, what work he had to do. He could never have achieved as much if he had just stayed as a professional scholar, getting another doctorate, another doctorate, and so on. And so there is a time for us to study, and there's a time for us to put it into practice. And there's a time to tell a person, you've got enough study right now, put into practice and get more later. As far as this spiritual ignorance goes, you can see the scripture has a continual theme about those people who are always learning and never able to come to an ultimate truth. Take Ephesians 4 verse 18. having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. We're living in an age of spiritual ignorance and spiritual blindness. The ox knows his owner, we read in Isaiah 1 verse 3. The ox knows his owner and the donkey knows its master. But Israel does not know me, my people do not consider. In Isaiah 59 verse 8, the way of peace they have not known. There is no justice in their way. They have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way will never know peace. Jeremiah 5 verse 4, Surely those are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord. In the Bible, ignorance is no excuse. They say in law, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Well, it's even more true when it comes to spiritual laws. Ignorance of the truth is culpable. Do you not know, the Lord says, in Amos 3 verse 10, For they do not know how to do right, says the Lord, who store up disobedience, and they store up violence and robbers in their palaces. store up violence and robbers in their palaces. It sounds like a description of a present government. Micah 4 verse 12, but they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, nor do they understand his counsel. In Romans 10 verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. This is an ongoing theme. Again in Judges 2 verse 10, another generation arose who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done. We're there again. another generation has arose who neither knows the Lord nor even know about the Lord and what he's done. In Job 4 verse 21 they say they die even without wisdom. Do you think that people can grow old and die without having ever discovered the wisdom of God? The fear of the Lord is beginning wisdom. Isaiah 40 verse 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? It's an accusation. Time and again God chants to you. You should know the Word of God's available, but people don't read it. We've got a Bible in virtually every hotel room. We've got Bibles all over, and yet people don't read. It's even available on apps and on the internet. Jeremiah 4, verse 24, my people are foolish. They have not known me, and they have no understanding. They are wise to be evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge. We have a time when people are very, very, very wise on how to be evil. a very stupid one when it comes to doing what is right and righteous Jeremiah 8 and verse 7 Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed time and the turtle dove and the swift and the swallows they observe the time of their coming but my people do not know the judgment of the Lord in other words the Lord is saying the birds of the air have more knowledge and more intelligence and more understanding than a lot of my people do That's a real attack on ignorance. Jeremiah 9 verse 3 says, They are not valiant for the truth. They have processed from evil to evil. They do not know Me, says the Lord. John 15 verse 21, Because they do not know Him who sent Me. And Jesus says in John 16 that all these things they're doing because they have not known the Father nor have they known Me. When the Apostle Paul goes to Athens, he finds an altar to the unknown God and he says, This, whom you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you. Time and again we seek condemnation of ignorance, especially spiritual ignorance. It's absolutely vital that we learn and come to knowledge of truth. But what's going up at UCT and UWC and Stelbosch right now is always learning and never coming to knowledge of the truth. There was a time that people going to university learnt theology, the queen of sciences, first and foremost. That was why so many universities, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, right over the entrance to the university, Proverbs 1 verse 7. But we've got people now who learn and learn and learn and learn but they never come to knowledge of truth because what they're getting is not education, it's indoctrination. It's not teaching them how to think critically, it's teaching them what to think and repeat after me the politically correct fables and myths. Verse 8. Now as Janice and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth. That's why the first weapon in spiritual warfare is truth, the belt of truth. They resist the truth. They are men of corrupt minds. Disapproved, concerned of faith. Men of corrupt minds. I'm sorry to say that most of the people in theological departments in the universities around this country are men of corrupt minds. Most of them do not know the Lord. They do not know the truth. They do not love the truth. They haven't had their minds renewed. Instead, they've become conformed to this world. and their leading theological students and future ministers of the gospel astray. And this is why many pulpits and churches of the land are corrupted and are neutralized because they've got people who don't even know the Lord and don't teach the word from their pulpits. Verse 9 But they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was. Well, I'm not too sure how many people today observe the folly, many of them believe the folly. Now here you see in verse 10 a theme that you get recurring in 2 Timothy, about you. You get this several times over. But you, in verse 14, and in chapter 4, verse 5, but you. So, after exposing the evil of what you're dealing with, because this is a great letter of spiritual warfare. We're in a spiritual war. Battle for hearts and minds, for families and the faith, battle for the church, battle for fulfilling Great Commission. And so he lays out the depravity of man, the perilous times, the evils, and he says, but you. having carefully followed my doctrine, man of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions." And at this he stops for a moment, speaking about the persecutions in Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, "...which persecutions I endured, and of them all the Lord delivered me." We then get verse 12, 2 Timothy 3 verse 12. Notice what it does not say. It does not say some will suffer persecution. It doesn't say many. It doesn't even say most. 2 Timothy 3 verse 12. It doesn't say may. It doesn't say probably will, it says will. All who desire to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you're not being criticized, you're not doing your job. If you're not receiving some kind of pushback, some kind of resistance, some kind of persecution, negative reaction for your faith, then you must be compromising somewhere along the line. If you are seeking to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus, you will suffer some persecution. we pray God it's not going to be the violent vicious persecution many Christians suffer today in the Muslim Middle East or in a communist world like China or North Korea but if we are not suffering some kind of persecution from people who are speaking behind your back, who are slandering you, who are passing over you for promotion, or refusing you for this bursary, or whatever the situation may be. If you're not getting some kind of negative reaction for living a consistent Christian witness, then you must be compromising somehow. Verse 13. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you, must continue in the things that you have learned and be assured of knowing from whom you have learned these things they had good mentors we read in Acts 14 verse 22 that when Paul and Barnabas went throughout the churches they encouraged them by teaching them we must pass through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of heaven and this is encouraging Well, I think if somebody came preaching that today, we must pass through much tribulation to enter the Kingdom of God. Many churches say, get thee behind me Satan. I don't receive that. Negative confession. Something like that. But it encourages them because it's God's reality. And we don't really encourage people by telling them myths that are going to lead them to disappointment and disillusionment we must warn people tribulation persecution is part of it Jesus in this world you will have persecution but be of good courage I have overcome the world that's in John 16 verse 33 time and again we see this emphasis Jesus suffered for us and left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps therefore this is to be expected of us persecution suffering negative things. But you, verse 14, must continue in the things that you've learned. Verse 15, knowing that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy had a godly grandmother, a godly mother. He's known of faith since he was small. He's been brought up in a faith. And these scriptures that he knows are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Again, you get the emphasis of sola fide, faith alone. We are saved by the grace of God and received by faith alone. And it's the Holy Scriptures. Now you come to a great passage that most Christians should know off by heart. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Here in 2 Timothy 3, 16-17, we see scripture's divine origin and its authority. Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is the ultimate authority. It's fully sufficient to equip us for every good work. The first priority of any minister of the Gospel is to know the Scriptures. This is why a Bible college or theological seminary's highest priority is to teach the Scriptures. Every book of the Bible, every verse of the Bible, should be in their syllabus. And yet, today, we find almost everything except the Scriptures taught in many of these theological cemeteries. No wonder denominations are going astray and going apostate, when the seminaries, in many cases, are where the rot has started. They have corrupted the minds and conformed them to this world of those who are meant to lead the church, and almost every denomination goes wrong, starting in the seminaries, which also easily become cemeteries, spiritually speaking. But it's scripture alone that's authority, and it's profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. It's meant to lead to action. the scriptures are meant to lead us to put it into practice. Then we get to chapter 4 and here we see the unchangeable Word of God and the need for us to live in the light of eternity. Very solemn charge. Remember, 2 Timothy is Paul's last letter. He is about to be put to death. It is after the fire of Rome. He's about to come before Nero. He's about to be executed as Nero is blaming the Christians for the arson, the fire of Rome, which Nero initiated in order to have a backdrop for his poetry and his singing and which he also organized so that he could rebuild Rome in the grand style that he had in mind and he had to get rid of all these old buildings to do that. So, Paul is giving his last charge to his beloved co-worker Timothy. Chapter 4 and verse 1. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and at his kingdom. This is a solemn charge. Paul is giving a command, this is a military order, to a soldier of Christ, someone who has been called to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Verse 2. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears that will heap up for themselves teachers, and will turn their ears aside from the truth and be turned aside to fables. Verse 5. But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. This is a very solemn, serious charge that should be given at every ordination and graduation service of ministers, evangelists, missionaries, chaplains, A solemn charge to live in the light of eternity. Live in the light of the fact that the day will come when you will answer for how well you fulfilled this in the presence of God before his throne on the day of judgment. This is serious, this is solemn. Lives depend on this. Eternal and dying souls depend on your faithfulness to the Word of God. And we are told what we must do. Preach the Word. Communicate God's Word. In season, out of season. In season would be at a church service. Out of season would be on the streets, at a braai, at places where people wouldn't expect it, maybe in Parliament. In-season, out-of-season. Convince, rebuke, exhort. There's a place for encouragement, there's a place for correction, there's a place for rebuke. Teaching is not all of the same kind. There's many different times and occasions which require a different approach. Just like a doctor will not use surgery for every problem, but there's sometimes when surgery is important. Sometimes medicines, a lot of times it's a change of lifestyle, change of health, what you eat, how you behave, exercise. There's many different things that may help us with our health, but there is a time for surgery as well, and there's time for rebuke in ministry as well. And the fact that people are not going to be interested in good doctrine doesn't mean that we must change for the times. The purpose-driven life and the purpose-driven ministry of Rick Warren has led to a mentality of we should go to the market and like businessmen and salesmen find out what do the people want and how do they want it and then we should design our church around what the people want. This also goes along with the Willow Creek sinner-friendly church where you try to adapt yourself to the world to make people feel comfortable with the way you do a service. So if the people would prefer a rock concert, some nightclub type atmosphere, entertainment, stage, performers, audience, then that's what you do. But that's not the way Paul instructs Timothy or Titus. In these pastoral missionary epistles, you've seen the emphasis on, you do it God's way, you communicate God's word, and whether people like it or not, it doesn't matter. good for them, if this is what God has required, the Creator, if this is in the manufacturer's handbook. It doesn't matter what the people want, it doesn't matter what I think, it doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what they think, it doesn't matter what the world says, it doesn't matter what the vote is, or the polls, the important thing is what does God, the Creator and Eternal Judge have to say? That's the important thing. And so, your walk, your work, your warfare, your weapons, your witness, this is the focus of True Timothy. We get to verse 6 in chapter 4. He's talking about, I'm about to die, I'm about to be executed. This is his second imprisonment in Rome. The first one had ended successfully because of Luke's work both in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, which was doubtless as evidence in order to give the background and show that Paul was innocent of the charges that would be brought against him first. He survived his first imprisonment in Rome, which was a very different imprisonment. He could be in a rented house, he was on basically house arrest, and people would come and go, he had free access. But this is different. Now he's in a cell, he's chained. He's about to be executed. This is different. And so this last letter of Timothy, it's speaking about where he's being abandoned. He mentions many people here. I think there's about 18 different names he identifies of co-workers and friends. There's so much in chapter four about the different people that he's left. And here he's about to be poured out like a drink offering. What you pour into the sand, you cannot recover. I mean, it's gone. His life on earth is about to be spent. But instead of being depressed or melancholy, you get this triumphant shout in 2 Timothy 4 verse 7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I've kept the faith. This is a great shout of victory. Paul, it's like this Olympic athlete who's reaching the finish line. He's about to cross the finish line and win the gold. And he's a triumphant, victorious missionary who's finished his race. Verse 8, finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who love his appearing. So he's anticipating the crown. Remember the athletes, the Olympic athletes and others at that time, they would receive a crown, not a gold medal like we do, but they'd have a gold wreath. A crown put on their heads, like a wreath but made in gold, as you may have seen in the old Ben Hur film. That kind of wreath. So he's looking for the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give him. Yes, he's about to stand before a human judge. Caesar Nero, actually. that he's looking to the ultimate judge, come in. Verse 9, be diligent to come to me quickly. And then he starts mentioning a few housekeeping things like, first of all, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. Now that is fascinating, because John Mark was the cause of the first mission split. John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas, and John Mark had been with them on their first missionary journey and he had deserted, he had given up, he had looked back, he had put his head to the plough and turned back and on the second missionary journey when Barnabas wanted to bring his cousin John Mark with him, Paul said no and they had a sharp disagreement and Barnabas and Paul split irrevocably. So John Mark was a deserter, a failure who had given up and Paul was so angry with him. Now Paul is saying bring John Mark, he's useful to me in ministry. So in the interim John Mark had restored and restitution, rebuilt the trust of Paul and had become invaluable and John Mark went on to write Mark's gospel, plant the church in Egypt and so many other great things. So this is intriguing because it shows us failure does not need to be final. We may have failed, but in the Lord there's restitution, there's hope, there's restoration. And then you start getting some very basic housekeeping requests, like verse 13, bring the cloak I left with carpets of choice when you come, and the books, and especially the parchments. He's thinking about the things he still wants to write. So the books and the parchments. The parchments would have been probably manuscripts. He's still busy with works in progress, and he still wants to continue. Then verse 14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. This is in Preparatory Prayers. where you pray for the Lord to bring justice, to bring judgment. A lot of the psalms are imprecately praised, prayers for judgment. Not taking the Lord to own hands, but asking God to judge. For the persecuted church, praying the psalms or praying the prayers of justice is a great comfort. We may not see justice on earth, but we will see justice in the light of eternity at the hands of God. And then verse 15, you must also beware of him, who, Alexander Copsmith, for he has greatly resisted our words. Again, there's a place for warning. It might make people feel awkward and uncomfortable when one mentions the names of some people who failed, betrayed, were backstabbers, who character assassins, who ecclesiastical tyrants and terrorists who try to undermine the work of God. sometimes we've got to remind them and he says at my first defense no one stood with me but all forsook me may it not be charged against him he's been deserted even by fellow Christians who fled like Demas because Paul is now before Nero and he's about to be executed then you get this most encouraging verse 17 but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that the message might be preached fully through me and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out the mouth of the lion so this reminds you that yes we might be deserted by the world but we're not alone and this reminds one of 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9 for the eyes of the Lord search through and fro throughout the whole earth to see whose hearts are fully committed to God, that He might strengthen them. He's looking for hearts that are fully loyal to Him. 2 Chronicles 16 9 tells us that the Lord is continually searching, His eyes are ranging throughout the earth, searching for hearts fully committed to Him, fully loyal to Him, that He might strengthen them. And so Paul might have been deserted by men. Well, praise God, Luke is with him. but everyone else has fled from him and he's alone otherwise in Rome he's deserted but he's not actually alone not in the light of eternity verse 18 and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom to him be the glory forever and ever he's not thinking about being saved from execution he's talking about being preserved for the heavenly kingdom his eternal soul to him be glory forever and ever a solid year of glory is being proclaimed here again and then he gives his final farewells. So what we see in 2 Timothy is spiritual warfare is very real and it's also very continuous. He identifies false teaching. He identifies false teachers. He commands Timothy to counter false teaching. Be watchful. Be diligent. Beware of false brethren. Endure afflictions. Fulfill your ministry. Complete that which has been entrusted to your care. Fan into flames the gift that God has given you. Stir up and keep ablaze your gift, your talents that God has entrusted to you. Endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Follow righteousness. Study the Scriptures. Teach the Scriptures. Preach the Word. Multiply your ministry. Take this teaching which has been trust to you and trust to other reliable men who will be able to trust to other reliable men after them. Fight the good fight of faith, be faithful to the end, keep the faith, persevere, preach the word and finish the race. Let us pray. Lord God we want to thank and praise you for your inspired, inerrant, infallible Word. We want to thank and praise you, Lord God, for the power we have in your Word. It is our spiritual milk and meat. It's a seed that never returns void. It always accomplishes what you've sent it out to accomplish. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We praise you that your Word is like a fire that burns within our hearts. It's like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. It is a double-edged sword. Help us, Lord God, be faithful in the spiritual warfare in which you put us. Help us, Lord God, to fight the good fight, to finish the race and to keep the faith. We pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.