Well, good morning It's always a pleasure to be here with you all just here Feel like a couple months or yeah fell a couple weeks months or two ago for the yells missions conference. And so that's It's always a blessing being able to come back to be with y'all So yeah, let's yeah, our Bibles are already open at that second Timothy in We read the first half and I'll eventually be reading reading the other half of verses 14 through 19 and know it's Paul's second letter that he's written to Timothy it's from what we know this is his last letter that he's written to Timothy and he's written first Timothy now he's at second Timothy and just kind of for super brief background here of second Timothy just kind of sharpen our yeah refresh and have a refresher reminder sharpen our perspective as we're reading this I was reading Paul is in prison in Rome, writing to Timothy, who's in Ephesus. As I was looking, that's about a thousand miles away. That's a ways to drive for us today, and for them, they didn't have all their airplanes and fancy ways of transportation. So by boat, a thousand miles, going across the sea, that was pretty extensive. Paul is expecting his death. It's coming. He's already talked about multiple times Even later on, he's saying, I'm being poured out as a drink offering. I've run the race. I have fought the faith, fought the fight. I have finished well. He's gotten out of the house imprisonment under his first arrest. But now with this, being in the Roman dungeon, he really doesn't see how much hope or expectations for getting out. So kind of naturally, any last words that somebody has to say That's going to carry more weight. I remember the last words of Mary's grandma that she said to us when she passed in December. Those carry a lot of weight. I remember, you know, it's just kind of what, how are you ending? What is coming out of your mouth? What's on your mind? What's on your heart? And how is that showing out for others? What does that look like? And so as we see, Paul's primary purpose in writing to Timothy was to encourage Timothy to continue faithful in the ministry despite the persecution and error he faced. That was all around him. The city of Ephesus wasn't a Christian hub where it was just growing and flourishing. It was a spiritually dark place. And Timothy, we don't know his exact age, but he was a younger pastor. Paul was his mentor. he was left to lead this church. And probably the majority of the church was older than he was. He was still young, still learning, and that would have been quite the daunting task that faced him. So Paul is wanting to set him up for spiritual success. And already we're going to be looking at starting off at verse 14, but everything starting from chapter 1 through chapter 1 through chapter 2 reading through we see 10 commands that Paul has already given Timothy. They were commands for action that Timothy needed to do. He couldn't sit there passively. He was to not be ashamed of the gospel, not be ashamed of the chains that Paul was in. Timothy was to hold to the truth, preach the truth, guard the purity of the truth. He used to be strong. He used to be faithful, endure hardship. He was to remember the work of Christ. And that's a high calling for a man as Timothy. And so that kind of what brings us to our passage, and as seen in the outline, it's Paul's continued charge to Timothy. And these were probably things Timothy had heard before. It wasn't something brand new. And in his years of being mentored, he had probably heard these things from Paul. And now Paul, in his final words, is wanting to, in a way, make sure that they're solidified, that Timothy has them down. And in the outline, in this continued charge to Timothy, We're going to see three commands and one promise that Paul gives to Timothy. The first command, instruct others to avoid fruitless debates. Second command, present yourself approved to God. Third command, for Timothy himself to avoid worldly and empty chatter. Then Paul ends with a promise that God's firm foundation stands. So I'll go ahead and read verses 14 through 19, and they say, Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter. For it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His, and everyone who names the name of the Lord. is to abstain from wickedness. So let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, I thank you that we can come before you in prayer. I thank you that you are our perfect Father in every way. We don't need to... I thank you that we don't need to fear that you're going to be inconsistent or accomplish what you say but I thank you that you are you're perfectly consistent and sovereign and we can trust how you work I think that there's no accident in your plans we praise you for the fellowship we can have around your word and being in it and around brothers and sisters in Christ the body of Christ I pray that we will live by your word, be characterized as believers who obey your word and show our love to you as we obey your words. I thank you for the examples we have from scripture of the life of Paul as he's writing to Timothy. And I pray that you will bless our time in the word this morning. For in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so in turn, let's look at Paul's commands and then the final promise that he gives to Timothy. So in verse 14, we see the first command. And the first command was to instruct others to avoid fruitless debates. In 14, again, it states, remind them, these other people, remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. And here Paul begins urging Timothy to instruct the believers under his care, the believers whom he's pastoring in the church in Ephesus, to avoid these arguments, to avoid these chatters and arguments over empty, fruitless matters. And he had a responsibility. As this young pastor, he was to purposefully and seriously lead and pastor this flock. Kind of already what was read back in verse two, Timothy was to take what he had heard from Paul and trust it to other men who then in turn would be able to turn around and teach others also. So he was to remind and teach others, and then it continues saying, solemnly charge them in the presence of God. In Paul's language here, it's powerful. He's saying it with an intention, it's a serious warning. Timothy was to be passionate, forthright. Paul wasn't mentioning to Timothy to, you know, in your conversations casually mention to these people that they need to be avoiding these things. He's calling Timothy to give a serious God-centered instruction. Avoid these things. Stay away from these things. His church was to be purposeful. It was to be with direction. Before God, they had the responsibility to live lives pleasing to God. And so therefore, if they had that charge and command, their conduct needed to be transformed. The last half of 14, it's the content of the first command. The point that Paul gets at is to wrangle with words is useless and detrimental. So a quick definition, to wrangle To wrangle with words means to dispute or argue, and typically signifies for an extended time making it complicated. Paul knows that debates over these meaningless topics, whatever they're in that church that they were struggling with, with what they were encountering, it only caused division, caused confusion. In reality, and it caused harm to the unity of the church family. of the body there. So in however long it had been that Paul was gone from Ephesus, the false teachers crept in, perverting the truth, wrangling words, whatever it was, trying to lead others away as they were trying to penetrate and enter the church and break apart that unity, distracting others from the truth. Looking back in verse 13 of chapter 1, Paul is giving these charges to Timothy. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me. Guard the treasure which has been entrusted to you. Timothy needed to be on guard. Those who wrangled the words perverted the truth. They were against Timothy. They were against the pure gospel message of the new church they're being planted, being growing. And one thing I wanted to note Paul wasn't dealing with, you could say, he's not dealing with word structure or word tense. You know, we as believers, we are to wrestle over the words of scripture. You know, we're to be diligent students. We're to be dividing the word of truth. We're needing to understand it accurately. As I studied and prepared the sermon, I was wrestling with the text of scripture. I was wrestling with verse 14. I was wrestling with verse 15. It's our studying of the word, it should make us sweat. It's a spiritual sweat. It takes time, diligence, effort. It's in a delight. But what Paul is getting at is that the false teachers here would wrangle or dispute over these words for the purpose of confusion and to lead others away. The method of the false teachers was, in a way, they could talk a whole lot. But it really didn't mean anything. It didn't say anything. Their technique was to confuse through verbiage. So there's definitely that difference between wrestling over the words of scripture to be a better student of the scriptures, to understand the words, than to wrangle over the words of scriptures for the purpose of confusion and wanting others to see my ways, my opinions, and to deceive and lead others away from the pure truth. And as you see, Timothy was not only to guard the truth, but to teach the truth. It was a both-and. It was the full package. These word wranglers, as it states, they didn't produce spiritual growth. They derailed believers, leading them away from the ultimate standard of truth. When Paul says it's, there again in the last half of 14, it says it's useless, that word useless, it means it leads to no profit. It's empty, void of truth, void of value. I'm reading out of the NASB, the ESV states it does no good. It accomplishes nothing beneficial. To pay attention to the false words in teaching to heed them and pay attention to them was to stray from the truth. And Paul was giving Timothy that warning. And the same for them as it is the same for us. We have that same responsibility that Paul has given to Timothy. We're to hold to the truth, we're to teach the truth. We're not to let ourselves get distracted and pulled into these sidetracking distracting debates. You know, there's a time and place. I got a few list of things. There's a time and a place for these. But there's, if we get caught up and consumed on, this is the best Bible translation. You must only use this one. No, you cannot use this one. You can only use this one. There's a time and a place for that. Debates and talks. Again, I haven't seen it. It was at another church far away. There is a church division over what church, the carpet color, whether it should be orange or it should be blue. The big distracting debates of, I wanna take this, I wanna do this. I've seen elsewhere, oh, we can only sing out of the hymnal. No, we can only sing off the PowerPoint. Well, we can only use this. There's a time and place to address those. But if it's what's consuming a church, consuming an individual, that's what's gonna lead others astray. That's what brings the division and the disunity within a church. The more one focuses on and is consumed with these distracting, useless words, only the more others are going to be hurt and distracted and hindered in their walk with Christ, preserving the unity of Christ. So Paul's message here to Timothy is clear. instruct others to avoid useless debates. And why? And he states, because to heed those empty words is useless and detrimental and causes destruction. Let's look at Paul's second command in verse 15, which is present yourself approved to God. Verse 15 says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. accurately handling the word of truth. And a little side note for those of you who know what AWANA is. A-W-A-N-A is the acronym from this verse. Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. So a little side note. But this command that Paul gives to Timothy, it's more personal, directed right at Timothy himself. And it's not that Timothy wasn't doing this. When Paul says, Timothy, do not be ashamed of my chains to remember the gospel, it's not that Timothy was forgetting. He just needed the reminder to keep on keeping on doing what you're doing. You're doing well, and I want you to keep on, Paul is saying. It seems like this command here in verse 15, it's the heart of Paul's command. And it's a high calling. When it says, be diligent, that word diligent can mean to exert. oneself to endeavor and that wasn't going to happen if timothy was going to sit around on facebook all day no he was he was to be active he was to to stick to it just be diligent this word um in all also in other places is translated as eager so another way to read would be be be purposefully eager to present yourself approved to God. It was supposed to be delight. It was supposed to be part of his life, something that he did continually, not just one day out of the week. And it's a full verse. In just reading through, we see the aspects of the personal discipline in being diligent. There's the aspect of being approved by God, not needing to be ashamed. Then there's this high calling of faithfully handling the word of truth, and it's a Powerhouse, it's a dynamite mind. And here it seems, again, it carries the most weight and passion from Paul. The church in Ephesus needed Timothy to live this out. The thing they needed most from Timothy was Timothy's holiness and faithfulness and obedience before God. As a pastor overseeing the flock, surrounded by much controversy and opposition to the gospel, Timothy had this responsibility to present himself approved to God, and that was going to take a lot of work. When it says approved, I found it beneficial looking into this word in the Greek. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I just found it out, yeah. Researching this word more, dakimos, which literally means approved, accepted. And a commentator states, Donald Barnhouse states, I got a quote here from him. In the ancient world, there was no banking system as we know it today. All money was made from metal, heated into liquid, poured into molds, and allowed to cool. When the coins were cooled it was necessary to smooth off the uneven edges. The coins were comparatively soft and of course many people shaved them closely to get more out of them deceitfully. In one century more than 80 laws were passed in Athens to stop the practice of whittling down the coins. Some money changers were men of integrity. and they would not accept the counterfeit money, the money that was whittled down. They were men of honor who only put genuine, full-weight money into circulation. And such men were called dokimas. It is that same word, literally, approved ones, you know, the accepted ones. Paul's church to Timothy was for Timothy to be a dokimas, to be approved before God. He was to be a man of integrity. He wasn't to be cutting corners. No, he was not to be whittling down the coins or accepting the counterfeit or listening to other sources of so-called truth. His conduct, his life, his actions, his interactions, everything that he did needed to match what God desired and that needed to be exemplified through his life. And it continues on in verse 15, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. And Paul's already used multiple metaphors here. But with the workman, as we understand, there's many different levels of workmen. Some are really good, some who are workmen, but are really bad. But this one is somebody distinguished as somebody who's diligent, who's skilled, who does his job well. In the beginning of chapter 2, as we already read, Paul had used the metaphor of a soldier, an athlete, a farmer. But now Paul's calling Timothy to approach the ministry and the handling of the Word as the same dedication as a farmer who would dedicate himself faithfully to working in the field, as a laborer or a workman who is diligent and disciplined in his work. Again, not cutting the corners. And here's a contrast of what was said before and what comes after. While others are dabbling and heeding and paying attention to these empty words, as others are wrangling words, being distracted, staying away from the truth, Timothy, on the other hand, was to be grounded in the word, staying in the truth. Major contrast of what others were doing, what Timothy needed to do. He currently was doing that, but he needed to keep on. He was to give his maximum effort to impart God's Word completely. His labor in the Word and the ministry needed to be marked by integrity. Doing right when nobody else was even around needed to be marked by effort. He needed to put the work in. He was to be committed. He couldn't be distracted or sidetracked by whatever was going on along the sidelines. Timothy needed to be diligent in his work to make sure that when he stood before God and his work was inspected, ultimately he would receive the Lord's approval and not be ashamed. And that same truth stands for us. Those who are faithful in the work for the Lord, there's no need for us to be ashamed. We can take encouragement in that. There's great joy in knowing that. where we are, what we're doing, if we're faithful, the Lord honors that. But then the truth stands on the other hand. Those who are unfaithful in their work for the Lord, those who are cutting the corners, being half-hearted, lazy, counterfeit, those will be ashamed. There can be no satisfaction in the work that the Lord does not approve. Look at the next phrase Paul calls Timothy to. He calls him in the second half of 15 to accurately handle the Word of Truth. And the Word of Truth is the Scriptures, the Bible. When Paul says accurately handle, it's a compound word in the Greek and it can be translated as rightly dividing, to make straight and smooth, or cutting straight, much like a farmer would cut a straight furrow in the field. It paints a picture of a workman who's careful, accurate in his work. And that same word, as it says, accurately handling it, this word is used elsewhere to describe a tent maker who would make the straight cuts in the leather or the fabric instead of crooked, jagged cuts. And Paul would understand that as he was a tent maker himself. So all these depict someone who's accurate, and it calls for expertise, calls for professionalism. Could not accept, you know, something half-hearted, partly done. And that's Paul's charge to Timothy. In order for Timothy to be a workman who wasn't ashamed, needed to handle the Word of God with the highest accuracy as God intended it. And the scriptures here are described to be the Word of Truth, showing its surpassing and peculiar value. You know, there were many words out there that Timothy needed to understand. This was the truth. Nothing else was. It contained the truth and was the truth. Timothy needed to handle God's Word with precision. You need to handle with integrity, with faithfulness. He couldn't just take again half-heartedly. Paul wanted Timothy as he handled the word, then Paul is encouraging Timothy as he preaches it. He needs to make sure that as he's delivering it, he delivers it without distortion, without misunderstanding it. If he misunderstood it, he's going to be guiding others to misunderstand it as well. He needed to deliver it without compromising. And again, everything that Timothy was doing was the complete opposite of what everybody else in that, it seems like the city in Ephesus was doing with the words of scriptures. And that needs to be a reminder for us that as believers, as we all have the responsibility and duty, and it should be our delight As we're in the word, those who live and study the word, we cannot be passive. We can't let that be a part of us. We're called to accurately handle the word of God. And a little side note, something that's been on my mind a whole lot recently, that those who use, and I got to make sure I keep myself in check, those who use AI to write the sermons or the devotionals or the studies, That's eliminating one's ability to accurately wrestle and handle the Word of God. It's like, meh, I'll leave it up for something else. And it just strips away one's ability to accurately and faithfully handle the Word of God. And again, as a reminder, those who are lazy in handling the Word of God, lazy in studying it, lazy in interpreting it, lazy in imparting it, lazy in teaching it, Those are people whom will be ashamed before God. So we can't approach God's word with an attitude of laziness. When we read it, are we making it mean what we want it to mean? Or are we accurately studying and applying the words of scripture as the author, capital A, as the author intended it to be understood and applied? Our commitment to rightly handle God's words speaks to our reverence for Him and our desire to lead others in the truth. I'll read that again. Our commitment to rightly handle God's words speaks to our reverence for Him and our desire to lead others in the truth. Let's look at the third chapter, third command in verses 16 through 18. The third command is to avoid worldly empty chatter Sorry, I'm on a tail end of a cold So the first command in 14 was directed yeah Paul and directing Timothy it was for Timothy To instruct others not to dabble and wrangle and heed these empty words But here in 16 to 18 this command is directed right at Timothy himself If he was to guide and teach others to stay in the truth and live in the truth and exemplify that through their lives, Timothy first himself needed to stick to the truth and live it out in his own life. He couldn't be hypocritical. In 16 and 17, we see the reason why he was to avoid this worldly and empty chatter. The truth is that, the next point in the outline, useless talk breeds and spreads ungodliness. Paul warns that this worldly, shallow, empty, meaningless chatter will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene. Timothy is literally to shun, to put away this empty talk. He's not even to consider it for a second. And this empty talk here is described as gangrene. And as I was researching and just reading about it, Other people described it. Again, I've never had it. I've never seen it, so I can only understand it as I read about it. They described it as a disgusting spreading infection that destroys the living tissues down to the bone. An ancient definition of gangrene was the putrefaction of tissues. The infection would set in a wound and would spread. As it grew, circulation would be hindered, discoloration, and rot would spread. It's not the most pleasant thing to think about. this imagery displays how dangerous and yeah how dangerous and infectious this irrelevant babble is and the main remedy for eating green was amputation cutting off eliminating not letting it be part of the of the body it was infecting and that's what needed And that was what was needed with the next two and the following verses in 17 through 18. We see an example of following useless talk. Hymenaeus and Philetus. It's the second half of 17. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has taken place and they have upset the faith of some. Again, as we see, Paul names these two as examples, a negative example of two whom have paid attention to the empty, irreverent Babel, transforming their lives in a negative way, which now they're derailing other believers. So in the age and influence of the Greek Gnosticism in the city of Ephesus, there were those who held to the belief that Gnosticism, or the knowledge of knowledge, was superior to all. So we can't dive into it too deeply right now, but these men, they let the outside influence and determine their view of scripture. And it seems like when they said, the resurrection has already taken place, these men, they denied the physical resurrection of the believers, saying that the resurrection was only a spiritual aspect. Now it was all out of there, and it states, it damaged, upset the faith of others. So this false teaching led others into doubt and confusion, and Paul is using them, again, not as a positive example, but as a negative example, as a warning against the consequences of distorting the pure truth. They were compared to gangrene, rotting tissue. So Paul tells Timothy to be a vigilant pastor, pulling out the weeds of falsehood and unfruitful conversations so that the faith and maturity of the flock of believers in Ephesus could grow unhindered. Now let's quickly look at the final promise that Paul ends in giving Timothy. Promises that God's firm foundation stands. Verse 19 states, Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. So after Paul is giving Timothy this wide open fire hydrant hose of command after command after command after command, I think this is maybe 13 commands now that he's just throwing at Timothy, He ends this section with some powerful promises. Regardless of what the false teachers had done, Hymenaeus or Philetus or those who were around them, regardless of what they had done trying to discredit and disprove the word of God, Paul reminds Timothy, God's foundation stands firm and remains unhindered. And that would have been quite comforting for a young pastor like Timothy. We don't need to go back there and read about, back in 1st Timothy 3.15, we read that the church, the body of Christ, is the pillar and support of the truth. And also from the scriptures, we know from the scriptures that the scriptures are the foundation of truth as it contains God's truth. In Isaiah 48, it states, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. So Paul reminds Timothy that whatever God has planted, whether it's God's words that abide for an eternity or the church that God has planted, whatever that is, it will not be uprooted. What God has planted, it is sure, it's absolute. So when it says seal, it shows that there's authentication, there's ownership. And then Paul gives these two quotes in this closing section. They could be possibly Old Testament references. Not really sure. But here they indicate the authenticity and entirety of God's foundation. And these aren't exclusive. These are just two that Paul decided to pick and put in here. The first is that God knows those who are His. Paul's reminding Timothy that those who belong to God are known by Him. and their faith is secure in him. And even through, again, the opposition that Timothy was facing. Timothy knew the opposition was real. He would probably encounter it as his beloved mentor, Paul, is currently in chains. His relationship with God was founded on the firm foundation that nothing, yeah, that nothing can shake, and he needed to stick to that. Then the final seal, the last half of 19, was that those who name the name of the Lord are to abstain from wickedness. So Paul's promise here is, in a way, again, a call to action, that those who bear the name of Christ are called to depart from wickedness. Their identity in Christ, whom they call themselves, demanded of life and holiness and a commitment to turn away from sin. They couldn't be hypocritical. So those who are known by God, those who are approved workmen, those who accurately handle the word of truth, that whole list, all of them are to abstain from wickedness. So Paul's promise to Timothy was a reminder that God's foundation of truth stands firm. It remains unhindered regardless what goes around. Even if he was feeling overwhelmed with all those commands he was receiving and instructions, he could have the assurance and assurity God's words were consistent. So to wrap this up quickly, we've been studying through 2 Timothy, kind of seeing Paul's progression of thought, seeing his passion, seeing his heart. He genuinely and sincerely cares for Timothy. He wants Timothy, again, to be set up for spiritual success. Paul really has no hope that he's gonna get out of here and he wants Timothy to remember and grab a hold of everything he can. Then the heart of Paul's exhortation, it lies here in verse 15. Different ways to translate it. To be diligent, be zealous, or be all in. To present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the word of truth And in the world that we live in, each and every one of us, we're surrounded by much that is counterintuitive for believers to live lives that are pleasing or approved to God. And that can't be an excuse. We can't just get lazy and throw our hands up in the air and give up and let life go on. to be active. As Paul is writing to Timothy, we see that same principle that we're to be active, we're to be diligent, we're to be zealous, but we're to be serious about handling the word and living that out. And it's worth asking us as we see Paul's charges and exhortations to Timothy that he's warning Timothy to follow, we need to ask ourselves, what am I meddling in? What am I wrangling in that is distracting me from the truth? What empty chatter are we being swayed by? What is hindering me from accurately handling the Word of Truth? The Word needs to guide our words and how we communicate and how we live. So these commands that we've seen from Paul to Timothy, they're a non-negotiable option for us as believers. So with everything we do, not just at church on Sunday, from sunup to sundown, Monday through Sunday, we're to present ourselves approved to God as diligent laborers who handle the truth of God as God intends.