hear these men sing this powerful song to remind us that the whole purpose of our existence is that we would be declaring His glory among the nations. He is a sovereign God. He's a gracious God. He is a mighty God. I have been so blessed this morning by all the music. Beautiful job, Jennifer, on the violin. "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus." What a wonderful joy it was to hear that played so beautifully. The choir song stirred my heart to know that we can trust God. We have come to God's house today out of a lot of trouble, a lot of trials. Our world is a mess, but we know that we have a God we can trust. Have you noticed that we've been singing about that this morning? That's encouraging. We should all go away with a little bit of a smile to know that we know the God who holds it all in His hands, and we can trust Him with our lives. And then, of course, the men singing this powerful song for us, and I've always known from your church that you understand that the music is not a filler. But the music is teaching and admonishing us to be what we ought to be. Whenever I come to Berean Baptist Church, I'm always just so blessed and I'm just reminded of how faithful this ministry has been through the years. Some of you don't know this, but I started coming here and ministering here years ago. And it's great to see Pastor Sweat. And as a good friend, it's great to just be back at Berean. And sometimes there's several years in between the times that I come. I'm thankful for Pastor Todd. I'm thankful for the ministry here, for the wonderful staff that God has provided, pastoral leadership, for so many faithful people that I know here and have known for many years. And of course, this is a special place too, because this is my brother Matt's sending church. and he told me to make sure I greet you and to say thank you again and just so thankful for how you are supporting and being a blessing to my brother and his family. I was so blessed about a month or so ago I was over in Hong Kong and most of you probably know that he operated his first overnight camp And that was very special for me to be there. I told him when he moved to Hong Kong, as he transitioned from the wilds camp to Hong Kong and his burden was to eventually run an overnight camp for young people, I told him, Matt, tell me when it's happening and I'm gonna be there. I wanna help you, I'll support you, I'll preach, I'll do whatever you want. And we were running the games and the program and the music and the preaching and it was a blessing to be there to see God do a work. And it's pretty amazing to see the people responding to even the camping ministry there in Hong Kong. And I believe it's just going to grow and grow. And thank you so much for your support to Matt and his family. And so I'm just so thankful for the privilege of being here. Thankful for the opportunity to share the word of God with you here this morning. It's great to have a family here from my niece's church up in Kentucky, Bluestone Baptist Church. And I met them before and had seen them outside of Kentucky. I was like, I know you, I don't know where you're from. Great to see them here as well. My niece, Sarah, Matt's daughter, Sarah, is married to Zach Kirchner, and he's one of the pastors there at Bluestone Baptist Church. and I'm sure that I'm going to be connected with a number of you after the service as well. It's just a quick visit for me here today, but it's always a special blessing to be with you. I'm thankful to be coming all the way down from Wisconsin, and it's a little bit warmer down here, though this is the best time to live in Wisconsin. and the weather is really nice up there now. And we do have one student at Maranatha Baptist University from your church right now. That's Karis, and most of you probably already know that, Karis Dwyer, and so thankful for her. We are hoping that God would send more students up to Wisconsin, but we know that the Lord is leading and guiding in each of your lives. So thankful for the privilege of serving at Maranatha Baptist University. Lord was stirring me again this morning, as most of you may already be aware. I'm in a transition period right now where we'll be moving ministries and we are still serving at Maranatha. Fully supportive of the ministry there, so thankful for it. But I was really stirred just with some uncertainties in my own life just to know that God is sovereign. God is in control. And that's a wonderful blessing here this morning. Would you take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the text that was read in our hearing this morning, 2 Timothy chapter three. 2 Timothy chapter three. I do look forward to greeting a number of you after the service as well, and so thankful for this privilege of sharing the word of God with you here this morning. 2 Timothy chapter three. We've already read the text, and this is a powerful text. in a book in the New Testament that has a very central theme and that theme is faithfulness. Now even when I say that this morning maybe there's a conviction in your heart maybe even this week or recently you have been feeling yourself being pulled away from just a steadiness a consistency in your walk with God, in your Christian faith, in your ministry focus. This is a book in the New Testament that reminds us that God wants us to be faithful. And it was written by the apostle Paul, one of the most faithful Christians and apostles, preachers ever to live. All of us would agree that Paul was faithful. In this book, he says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. So even under inspiration, he testified of his faithfulness. Most of you are aware that Paul is in his final hour. This is the last book that he ever wrote. And he is writing it from prison in Rome shortly after this book was written. He loses his life. He becomes a Christian martyr. He was faithful all the way to death. And yet he is challenging young Timothy in this pastoral epistle. He is challenging young Timothy with this ultimate goal. And it should be the ultimate goal for us. And that is that we would be found faithful, that that characteristic would describe our lives. The Bible says, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. We may not be as fruitful as we want, we may not feel as fulfilled as we want to be, but what we can be is we can be faithful. And by God's grace, he will challenge us this morning with this text to remind us that this is one of the priorities of our life. And the sad reality is in a lot of churches, in a lot of homes, in a lot of ministries, it's just hard to find people. Where are the consistent, steady, reliable, faithful Christians? And I want to just remind us this morning, this does not happen over just days or even months. My friends, this morning, faithfulness is over years. And there's something good to be said about Christians that are the same today as they were five years ago. And as the culture changes, as expectations change, and even we can change, there's a steadiness, there's a foundation in their life that's a wonderful blessing. And that is the call of God upon us this morning. That we would look deeply into our hearts and we would be committed to this value. And that we would ask God to make us faithful Christians. Faithful for all of our life. Just like Paul was, and I would argue just like Timothy was. And so many others we could talk about throughout church history. So this text helps us to see what I believe are four realities that we must remember if we are going to be that faithful person. There's no doubt that God is calling us to be faithful, but how can we be faithful? We need to remember these four realities that Paul challenges Timothy to. I think Paul was nervous. He was a little concerned that Timothy would continue, that Timothy would be steady. Timothy was not as bold as Paul. We know that the scripture tells us that he was probably more shy and more timid He was even a little sickly, and yet he was an outstanding pastor. And Paul was challenging Timothy, he was concerned. This is his final hour, Paul's final hour, and he's saying to Timothy, these are things you must remember if you're gonna have the same testimony that I had, that I fought a good fight, finished the course, kept the faith. And these lessons can be lessons for us as well. So let's look at these four realities. These are realities of life, realities of ministry, realities of our Christian experience, that if we forget, then we probably will not be faithful. But if we remember these and live in these realities, then there's gonna be a steadiness and a consistency in our life. So the first reality that we must remember is found in the first verses that we read, verses 10 through 12, where the Bible is describing for us the difficulties of Paul. Now it is interesting that verse 10, is one of the classic verses that showcases for us that discipleship ministry is very important. I love that verse because Paul testifies of the mentoring that he was doing in the life of Timothy and he was living his life out in front of Timothy. And one of the areas that he lived in front of Timothy was his persecutions. All right, so this is not the place that we really want to start. This is not a reality that we like to talk about, but it is the first reality that Paul gives to Timothy right here in this text, and that is reality number one. Are you ready for this? If you want to be faithful, guess what? You will suffer. I told you, I warned you, this is not what we want to hear. This is not what we're expecting at the very beginning of faithfulness. But this is very important that we recognize what Paul is saying here to Timothy. As he says very clearly in verse 12, all that live godly in Christ Jesus will what? Suffer. All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer. I'm probably looking at some folks here this morning and maybe you're suffering right now. Maybe you're going through a deep time of despair. Maybe there is a particular trial or a relationship issue. I think the primary context of these sufferings that are being spoken of here in 2 Timothy chapter three, the primary context is suffering for righteousness, suffering because we're Christians, suffering because we're trying to be faithful. And the reality is in America, our sufferings pale in comparison to what Paul faced. and to what even many people around the world are facing these days. But there is no doubt about what he's saying here. Faithful people are going to suffer. Now this is really important that we remember because often we get discouraged and depressed when we're hurting. And we have the tendency to quit. We have the tendency to step away from what we know to be true when we're hurting, and sometimes we get angry, and sometimes we get depressed, and sometimes we even get bitter at God, or we get bitter at other people for the suffering that we are facing, but here he's saying that all people in all time periods who are going to be faithful, they're going to suffer. He mentions it in verse 11. Notice the first two words. Persecutions. Afflictions. And then in verse 11, he mentions three particular cities. Notice these cities. We don't have time to look at the book of Acts. Pastor told me you're working through the book of Acts. You've probably come across some of these things if you've gotten this far. But in Acts chapter 13, the city of Antioch is talked about. Paul and Barnabas in chapter 13 of Acts verse 50, Paul and Barnabas are expelled from the city due to the persecution that they were facing for preaching the truth. This is the first city that is mentioned in verse 11. He says, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch. No doubt Timothy was already aware of what was happening with Paul. Timothy was aware of what we see in the scriptures, that literally everywhere he went, he suffered. But it is interesting that Paul intentionally is calling out particular cities, particular situations, particular places where Timothy would have been aware of what Paul suffered. And he's doing that at this very moment while he's in a dungeon in Rome. And of course, that would have been the obvious example of suffering at the very moment of the writing, at the very distribution of this letter, Paul is suffering. He mentioned, secondly, the city of Iconium. In Acts chapter 14, verses five and six, Paul has to leave the city of Iconium as a result of a plot to stone him. Thankfully, he was released from that suffering. He didn't actually get stoned in Iconium, but there's another city mentioned next where he did get stoned. In Acts 14, the city of Lystra, which is actually the hometown of Timothy. Timothy would have been fully aware of the suffering in Lystra where Paul was stoned. This is where Timothy met Paul. This is where Paul came through and invited Timothy to travel with him. So Paul is reminding him of all of these persecutions and they're listed out in particular in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Study that text sometime in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and then going into chapter 12 where Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 10, therefore I take pleasures in my infirmities. In reproaches. in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. He takes pleasure in those things. Now, clearly the New Testament is not teaching us that we desire these things. That's ridiculous. No one desires to be reproached. No one desires to be mocked and ridiculed. No one desires to be thrown into prison and to suffer persecution. But what he's saying is everyone who is faithful is going to suffer. And our sufferings will be very diverse. Our sufferings will be in different times, in different places, in different intensities. But all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. This is exactly what Jesus said. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. My friends, this morning, this is so important for us to recognize because we are living in an aggressive culture that is anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-Bible. It is standing against everything that we hold dear. And if we are not aware of this reality that you are going to suffer, we as the church of God are going to suffer, then as persecution comes on the rise, we will wane in our faithfulness. But we must be faithful. We must continue to follow God, to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, even through the difficulties, even through all of the sufferings of life. And this is why even in the book of 2 Timothy, you can notice this with me, chapter two, verse three. Notice how he encourages Timothy through the sufferings. He says, thou therefore, chapter two, verse three, thou therefore endure. These words are powerful to have patience and continuance in the suffering. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Chapter two, verse 12, if we, or literally since we suffer, we shall reign with him. Showcasing for us that actually there is a reward for those who suffer well. There's a crown that is awarded to those who suffer well, and all that live godly are going to suffer. All people who are faithful are going to suffer. He says in chapter four, verse five, 2 Timothy four, verse five, but watch thou in all things endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. And so he's challenging Timothy with this idea, and clearly in the book of 2 Timothy, one of the themes is faithfulness through suffering. Be patient, be enduring, be steadfast, don't quit when it gets hard. One of the most fascinating books of all church history, or that records for us so much of church history, is Foxe's Book of Martyrs. You know what? In the comfort and ease of American Christianity, it would do us well to read some of those stories. And to recognize that all people through all times of church history have suffered greatly, but we can be faithful to God. We must be faithful to God. That's the call of the message. That's the call of this book, and particularly the example of the Apostle Paul, that we would be fighting the good fight and finishing the course and being faithful all the way to the end, but we surely must remember it's not going to be easy. What are you facing right now that is causing you to be tempted to quit? What are you struggling with right now that is breaking your heart so much that you're about to ask this question, is it really worth it? And I say to you, it is. It is. Faithfulness to God is always worth it because everything here is temporary and everything there is eternal. Praise God for that. And so when we are faithful to him, we are living for eternity and not for the here and now. We are living with eyes of faith. We are walking by faith and not by sight. Even when we press through the difficulties, this is the first reality we need to learn. And I do believe, and especially American Christianity, we need to learn this well because we do have very comfortable lives. And we get frustrated and irritated sometimes when it gets out of sorts, and when we're feeling the pain, and when we're feeling some persecution, but we need to remember that faithfulness demands that we press on through the suffering. You will suffer. This is what verses 10 through 12 are teaching us. So I'm challenging you this morning, be faithful and remember these realities. Reality number one, you will suffer. Reality number two is simply this, found in verse 13, the world is getting worse. Somebody say amen to that. You don't have to look hard and long to notice what verse 13 says is so true about our culture, not only about our culture, but about the church in general as well. But evil men and seducers Our waxing shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The language here is clear, that error is breeding more error. And this is exactly what we see, not only in the general policies or acceptance of wickedness in our culture, which we look at, and we see very little progress toward righteousness, and we see a lot of progress towards wickedness, Deceiving and being deceived, lies build more lies. And sad to say, our culture is completely built on lies. And the lies of Satan and the lies of the culture and the lies of the world are really propagated even by our government and even with the values and the virtues that are promoted by the agendas of people who hate God. It's getting worse. But you know what, it shouldn't surprise us. That's what the verse says. That's the promise and the prediction right here. And as a matter of fact, if we go back to chapter three, verse one, it's very interesting that as we read these verses, it's almost like he was looking down the corridor of time and he was like talking about our culture. But he wasn't, he was describing under inspiration what is generally happening in every civilization as we wait for the coming of the Lord. And that's what he calls the last days. Notice verse one of chapter three, he says, this know also that in the last days, those are the days before Jesus could return and we as Bible-believing Christians believe he could return at any moment. Which means, are you ready for this? Paul thought he was living in the last days. Timothy thought he was living in the last days. So anytime somebody says it has to be closer now, it's really not the case. It's always been close. The coming of the Lord could come at any moment. The second coming is in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. It comes like a thief in the night, and no man knows the time or the hour, and so anybody that's trying to predict that is actually not telling you the truth, because he could come before the service is out. The last days, which is a description of all of the days before Jesus returns. And this is the description not only of culture and the downward trend of culture and civilizations in Paul's day and in Timothy's day, but even today, this is what we see. Notice how he describes it. He says, dangerous or perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. I do believe that that kind of categorizes all of these sins that are listed here. They all go back to the fact that it's who you worship. It's who you love. Are you worshiping God? Are you worshiping self? And that's what Romans 1 clearly teaches as well. And so I do agree that many of these, if not all of these, are really hinging on this reality that the general population, they're lovers of their own selves. They're not worshiping God. But he says they're gonna be covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. without natural affection. And again, it's almost like he's describing our culture, right? False accuser, truce breakers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. And then he says, from such turn away. There's the idea of separation, that we as God's people should be clearly separated from this downward trend. So he's challenging Timothy to remember this. I don't know if you struggle with this, but I do. Sometimes I get discouraged about what I'm seeing. Do you struggle with that? And sometimes I foolishly think, wow, there's really no hope, but there's always hope. There's always salvation in Christ. There's always grace available. There's always people that can be rescued from the wickedness of the world through saving grace in Jesus Christ. But there's a tendency for us to live with this attitude of, well, everything's going down. Everything's bad. And sometimes it actually causes us to stop doing what we know is right. And this is why reminding ourselves of this this morning is so important. We need to be reminded that God has predicted that the world is going to get worse and worse. And what's interesting is he actually mentions religious leaders here. He says evil men and seducers, which I would actually include them in the world. The world is getting worse because false teachers are unbelievers. And my friends, this morning, in American society, the largest churches of America are being pastored by false teachers. Did you know that? And it's just getting worse and worse, and their error is building on more error. And one of the biggest errors being taught in our culture today is what's called the prosperity gospel, and these typically are the largest churches, because who doesn't wanna attend a church that's gonna tell you everything's gonna get better if you just love Jesus? More money, more success, more pleasure. Everything's gonna be fine if you just love Jesus. And yet even Jesus had nowhere to lay his head. We've already talked about persecutions. That's a false gospel. It's getting worse and worse. And we do have to be like Berean Christians, Berean Baptist Church. Be like a Berean Christian. Study the scriptures to see if it is so. And even in this message this morning, with every message that is preached on this platform, that we don't check our brain at the door, but we actually consider what is being said. Is it what the text is teaching? Is it truly on the apostle's doctrine? Does it fit with what we see about God and the gospel? And we all need to know our Bibles well so that we can recognize how it's getting worse. So that we can recognize the downward trend. So I believe that this is the reality that Paul is giving to Timothy, the world is getting worse. But you know what? The warning was given clearly to Timothy in multiple places in this book. Multiple places about getting involved in the downward trend of the world. The classic text is 2 Timothy 2, verse four, where he warns Timothy, no man that entangleth himself with the affairs of this life will please him who hath called him to be a soldier. He warns him by challenging him not to get entangled. Listen, friends, this morning we live in a wicked world, and we are to be in the world, but we are not to be of the world. We are, as the scripture says too, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And as we see everything getting worse, we should be like salt and light. We should be in a sense, as the prophet said, standing in the gap, stemming the tide, making up the hedge, doing something that kind of showcases that we are pilgrims and strangers on a journey to a better place. And so we are not to be entangled with the affairs of this life. And I just want to challenge us all this morning that we would look deeply into our hearts. Where, where are we feeling like maybe word on that downward trend? Where are we following the ways of the world and not being faithful because we're to be crucified under the world for friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We need to be reminded of this regularly as we come out of the world to God's house to worship Him, we need to be reminded of this. This world is not our home. We're just passing through. And praise God that He has made us for His world. He has made us for a much better place. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. So we need to remember that the world is getting worse. This is the second reality. I promise you, if you forget about this, then you're going to find yourself becoming progressively more worldly instead of being faithful. You've got to remember that it's expected, it's predicted, it's promised here, the world is getting worse. So reality number one, you will suffer. Reality number two, the world is getting worse. There's a third reality that comes from one of my favorite verses in the New Testament. It actually is a verse that is on back of the sign at one of my favorite places in all the world, the Wilds Christian Camp. And it is a verse that you've seen if you've been there as you drive off the campsite, verse 14, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. All right, this is reality number three. Number one, you will suffer. Number two, the world is getting worse and worse. Number three, you and I must continue. You and I must continue. We need to stop making excuses for our unfaithfulness. We need to stop following the ways of the world. We need to recognize that there is a body of truth that demands a commitment. There is a body of truth that demands faithfulness. That we continue in the things which we have learned. No doubt Paul is referring here to the apostles doctrine, the apostles teaching. We could say it's all the doctrines. We could even say it's God's word. No doubt what Paul is talking about here is all the truth that he taught Timothy. But there are truths that we cannot forsake. There are doctrines and precepts and principles of the Bible that you cannot forsake. Faithfulness demands that we continue. The word continue here is also translated in the New Testament as abide. It literally means stick with it, stay with it, follow after it. Remain is the idea. Remain in the things which you have learned. And praise God, we have learned much. From the youngest to the oldest in this room, we have learned much from God's word, and it's true. God's word is true. We gotta stand on it. We gotta be faithful to it. Now, it's interesting that in verse 14, I believe he shows us two ways that we continue to follow the truth. And I love this, because first of all, he says that we continue to follow the truth by, number one, being assured that it's true. being assured that it's true. Notice how he says this. Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of. I have a love for apologetics. I think apologetics are very powerful for this very reason. As we not only see the truth in the scripture, but then we start to see internal evidence, external evidence, logical, historical evidence for the faith that we believe, that it gives us the confidence to remain. Now, there is clearly a limitation to apologetics. We walk by faith. There are many things that we'll never explain. We need to try to not get so deep into apologetics that we try to explain away what the Bible actually says are mysteries. There are things that are mysteries that we step out in faith and we believe. One of them, just to mention it obviously, is the Trinity. you can't apologetically, logically, historically, with outside evidence, prove the Trinity. It's just not possible. And you could even go all the way to, can we really fully apologetically prove that God is, that God exists? I think there's a lot of things we can talk about. There's a lot of helpful things, but ultimately we step out in faith. So, I'm not lifting up apologetics as the end all and the answer to our lives, but I will say this, the more you study those kinds of things, the greater confidence you will have to remain in your faith. Be confident and be assured of what you believe. One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 3.15, that we should be ready always to give an answer of the hope that lies within us with meekness and fear. I do believe that many times Christians depart the faith as the world gets worse, as they suffer, as they go through persecutions, many times they leave the faith because they're doubting some of the things they say they believe. Doubting Christians are drifting Christians. And so it's important that we dig down deep into our Bibles and we understand our faith. That we are confident in what we believe. And again, just to reiterate, this is why church is not the end all. This is why we all need to be students of the Bible. As Paul told Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God. All right, this is the first way we remain. We are confident in what we believe. There's a second way, and I love this, because when I read this, I'm immediately thinking of many people in my own life. Not only do we continue by being assured of or confident of what we believe, but we continue by remembering the people who taught us. All right, I just paused for a moment, and I wonder, are you thinking of anybody in your life that has taught you. There are some sitting in this room. There's some away from you, maybe family members, maybe Christian school teachers or other pastors or youth workers, people that have invested in your life. When I start thinking about this, my mind just goes in many, many different directions. And you know what, I just wanna say praise God that he has placed in my life, and I'm sure you would say this, he has placed people in your life that are committed to the truth. Aren't you glad for that? So you need to think about them, and surely Paul was first of all thinking about himself here. Hey Timothy, when I'm dead and gone, you better not forget me. Surely he was thinking about himself here, but we also know that he's reminding Timothy even in this text about his godly home, and that we have a lot of young people here this morning. You know what, you better not forget your parents. Somebody say amen to that. Don't forget your parents. who have invested in you. They're not perfect, but they love you. They're investing the truth in you. You cannot forget who you've learned from. Don't forget those people. As a matter of fact, you ought to thank them. And you ought to stick with the values and the virtues that they've taught them. I mean, consider, always consider what they're teaching. As we've already said, we're not talking about just following blindly. We're talking about people that are committed to the truth and nobody's going to perfectly teach the truth, but there are people that we look to and we're like, praise God, they've been faithful and I can, I can remember them. So we need to continue in the things which we have learned. And I just wanna encourage you today, if you're feeling like you're falling away, if you feel like maybe you're not as faithful as you ought to be, that this verse can remind you of some simple ways to get back to remaining and abiding in the truth, because if this is the truth, if God's word is the truth, and that's what we believe, then we cannot ever forsake it. And we speak it, and we herald it, but more importantly, we must live it. We must live it out because talk is cheap and we continue in the things which we have learned. We need to remember this truth. You must continue in the truth. All right? So we're learning. What we're learning is how to be faithful. This is what Paul told Timothy in his final hour. You can be faithful when you recognize you will suffer. The world is getting worse and worse. You must continue in the truth. There's challenges that he gives to Timothy, his beloved son, in this book of the New Testament. And finally, number four, let's notice this, the clear text, the classic text here, on the importance of the Bible. Number four, you desperately need the word of God. You desperately need the word of God. What I'm saying this morning is, is not sending us away going, okay, I'm going to do better. I'm going to try harder. It's going to be all about me. I can do this. No. He says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And he reminds Timothy that even the things he learned from his mother and grandmother, the heritage he had from a child, he knew the Holy Scriptures. It was all about the Bible. It was all about the need of the Bible, the importance of the Bible, the reliability of the Bible, the authority of the Word of God. Listen, I believe a lot of Christians have gotten away from just the sufficiency of the Word of God, that God has the answers. that we have everything we need for life and godliness found in the Word of God. And what's beautiful about the Bible is that it's written by over 40 different authors in several different centuries, and they all agree on the central theme, and the central theme is there is a Redeemer. The Bible is about redemption. The Old Testament is predicting and prophesying and showcasing the Messiah, the Promised One. The New Testament reveals Him to us. He actually is born, and He lives, and He dies, and He's raised, and He's ascended up into heaven, and all the way to the end where we actually get to see Him in heaven in the book of Revelation, which speaks of the future things. And what's amazing about the inspired Bible is that it has a central theme, and the theme is there is a Redeemer, and His name is Jesus. And the Bible is not meant to be a book that just gives us all the very detailed answers for our life. The Bible is meant to be a book that we can read and study and understand that will give us all of the ability through the Spirit's illuminating power to make right decisions in this world. Yes, there are many commands. This is so important to remember. There are commands like the Ten Commandments, but actually most of the Bible is not didactic in that way, just like giving you the commands. As a matter of fact, much of it is in principle form, and much of it is in story. And yet the Bible is inspired, and we cannot ignore it. We actually cannot possibly be faithful if the Bible is set aside. We cannot possibly be faithful unless we have the inspired word of God. As it says here in this text, it is profitable. It is profitable for what? For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect or literally complete or mature. thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And I love this because Paul was a preacher, Timothy was a pastor, preacher as well, and Paul is challenging Timothy to make sure that his entire life, personally and privately, is built on the word of God. And that's the challenge for all of us as Christians, is that we would build our lives on the foundation of the word of God. But what I love also, because I am a preacher, is that, and which is why we read verses one and two of chapter four, is that this is a pastoral epistle. And Paul does not just challenge Timothy in his personal life. Timothy in your personal life, you better read it, you better study it, you better memorize it, you better make it a part of your life. But he says, Timothy, also in your public ministry. And this is a text that every preacher should follow. Preach what? The Word. Preach the Word. Let the Word say what it says. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Don't embellish it. Say what it says. This is what we call expositional preaching, where we let the Bible say what the Bible is saying. And we showcase what we're saying as preachers from what is already here. I love to tell my preacher boys this. We don't say what we think. We say what's already there. And all we're doing is saying what's already there in a creative package. That's called homiletics. It's pastoral training. So you have two sides of preaching. You have interpretation and you have presentation. Both are important. I would argue that interpretation's more important, but in preaching, both are important. In other words, you have what's called hermeneutics, which is the interpretation, and you have presentation, which is the homiletics, that is, how you preach, because preaching is public, and preaching is speaking in front of public, and it has an audience. Both are important, and all of us know this. We've heard some people that are really good at presenting, but you're always thinking, like, where did they get that from the text? They can hold the crowd with their stories, or their jokes, or their humor, or whatever, or just their personality, which preaching is through a personality. That's what it is. Preaching, God wants us to use our personality. This is why you don't ever try to preach like anybody else. You let God preach through you. But we've heard some people that are really experts at presenting, and you're always wondering, is that what that text is really saying? Then there are other people that we've all heard, and they're really good at interpreting, but it's just boring. In other words, it's hard to follow because there's no structure in their presentation or there's no passion in their You understand what I'm saying? But we can say all of that, and you can have the interpretation and the presentation, and if you have that in good balance, and you are committed to preaching what the Word says, then guess what? It is the preaching of the cross that is them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, it is the power of God. And I'm so thankful that you are in a church which lifts up the importance of Bible preaching and teaching, and that this pulpit, behind this pulpit, are preachers that are preaching the Word. Because my words have little influence, but God's words have great influence. Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. And so Paul is challenging Timothy that faithfulness is directly proportionate to his commitment to the Bible. His commitment to the Bible. Now, I'm sure you're aware of this. There are many, many people and many ministries that are not committed to that kind of truth telling. And this is what we need. We need it personally. We need it publicly. We need faithfulness and faithfulness is a desperate dependence on what God has already revealed. We don't need more. We don't need extra revelation. We have it all. So we are committed to the word of God. All right. So these are the four realities that we need and the whole goal. is faithfulness. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And like I said, it's not over months, it's over years. This should be the goal from the young people here this morning, that even when you get older, that you're still sticking by that truth. This should be the goal of those of you that are in your older years of life, that all the way till maybe God takes you home, all the way to the end of your life, that you'll never forsake God, that you'll be true to his word, true to his principles, that you will continue in the things which you have learned, and if that faithfulness is going to be a part of our life, this is what I'm saying, you need to remember, you're going to suffer. It's going to get worse. You must continue. but you desperately need the Word of God. The only way to continue is in the Word of God. Are you reading the Bible, studying the Bible? Are you knowing what God says? That's the power. That's the strength of God upon our life. You know, the Bible tells us that someday we could stand before God and we could hear him, possibly we could hear him say something to us, right? Well done. Say it with me, thou good and faithful servant. I don't know about you this morning, but I long to hear that. And I know that in my own power and in my own strength, I'll never hear that. But when I follow God's truth and I'm enabled by his presence and his spirit and I'm enabled by his grace, I really do believe that with the eye of faith that we should long for that day. that we should long for that about our personal lives, our families, our ministries, faithfulness, steadiness, consistency, reliability. May God help us to this end. If you're here this morning and you've never truly received Jesus Christ, then really this kind of Christian faithfulness cannot possibly be lived in your life until you come to him by faith. We know the Bible teaches it's not church attendance that saves, it's not baptism that saves, it's not a sacrament or any good work that we do that saves. The Bible says if you will come in simple childlike faith, repent and believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The Bible says that you will become a Christian, you can be saved if you're here today and you've never received Christ. That's when true faithfulness begins. when you get saved. And then your whole life can be committed to him and you can live in this reality. If you're here without Christ, we plead with you today could be your day of salvation. Just a moment, we'll have an invitation. You can come and talk to one of the pastors today and tell them you need Christ. Tell them you're not a believer. Maybe you're an attender, maybe you're a visitor here this morning. You could come and tell them, I'm not a Christian, I need to get saved. We would be glad to send somebody with you today and share with you the clear teaching of the Bible. that it's in faith, faith in Christ alone that you can be saved. If you're a Christian, and I'm assuming a lot of us are believers here this morning, we should be asking the question, are we faithful? Right now, am I faithful? And if I'm not, I need to get back where I need to be. And if I am, pray that God continues that faithfulness. all the way till he takes us. And by God's grace, we will be faithful so we can hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. Bow your heads and close your eyes, and let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for this text of scripture. Thank you for the privilege of preaching the word here this morning, and just challenging our hearts with faithfulness. I pray that the challenge will be clear to all of our hearts. Lord, in this time of response, this time of invitation, Help us to look deeply into our hearts. Lord, I pray if there's anybody here today who has never become a Christian, they've never been born again, that today would be the day of salvation. And they would believe on you, turn from their way and their sin and believe on you today. Lord, for Christians, I am sure that some are depressed and discouraged and they're down and they're struggling in faithfulness. Maybe looking at the ways of the world, maybe about ready to quit through suffering, maybe forsaking even the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would get us back to where we need to be so that we can truly continue in the things which we have learned. Lord, I pray that out of this church, you would just continue to raise up steady, reliable, faithful, consistent believers. that will never waver from the truth. Help us to commit to you what we need to, confess to you what we need to, that you would challenge our hearts in this time of invitation, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand please as we just have a time of response. Please just keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. Of course, you can come and pray. If you'd like to walk down the aisle and come and kneel here at the front. If you'd like to talk to the Lord where you stand, or even get on your knees, or even go out to another place. Whatever God wants you to do, you do. We want to give you an opportunity. The pastors are available at the front. Counselors could be sent with you if you need help. If you're here without Jesus Christ, I would just say, come meet pastor. We would love to help you today if you have never become a Christian. We just want to give an opportunity because when the Word is preached, we need a chance to respond. That response is mentally, emotionally, and volitionally. That happens in our lives, but sometimes God does want us to move. And He wants us to kneel and wants us to pray. But of course, at the very minimum, everybody responds. you will respond. And so take a moment right now to respond to what you have heard in whatever way God is challenging you to respond. Please come if you need help from the word of God. Right now as the instruments play, let's take this moment to respond to God's truth. Pastors waiting if you need to talk, if you want to come and pray. If you want to just talk to the Lord where you stand right now, take this moment. Make a decision in your heart. Commit something to Him.