The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
Soaring Through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It's feeling better
and better every week. And for me, Wednesday
night, doing this again, being able to do this
again feels really good. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad we're here. I know that we
have people inside. We have some people outside
scattered around the campus. It just gets better every week. Now we also
understand that there are people who are
still at home and not feeling good enough to go out
or feeling a little bit scared or apprehensive. And that's why we are still
committed to not only bringing you this live. But on the weekends,
we're continuing with a special online service. So I've added that. Usually, I begin a service
at 6:30 Saturday night. I'm doing one at
4 o'clock Saturday afternoon to capture it
just for the online folks. And then we have
a team of people that get online in chat
rooms on a ministry platform to be able to pray for you,
to be able to counsel you, et cetera, et cetera. So we understand there's a
huge cyber community out there. And we want to be devoted
to those who are joining us that way at this time. So we're going to
continue that for a while. And we just figure, let's
just work a little harder and serve the body of
Christ any way we can. But I'm really glad
we are gathered here in this place tonight for
the Bible from 30,000 Feet. Yeah, it's been so long, I've
forgotten how to do this. But would you turn in your
Bibles please to 1 Timothy chapter 1 as we
look in an overview fashion at 1 and 2 Timothy. A couple months ago, just
as this whole COVID thing started to get underway,
maybe a few days before that, I was taking my car
in to get worked on. And this guy turned
around and looked at me, and then he looked at me again. Then he said, Skip, is that you? And I said, yes. And he said, I thought
you were familiar. And I was wondering
if that wasn't you. But he said this,
but you look older. Well, it's true. And I thought, well, you're
probably looking older too. I didn't say that. But that's a process of life. But I started thinking
about Paul the apostle. And it dawned on me, I am the
age when Paul the apostle died. And I remember thinking
that when I was 33. And I'm thinking, I'm the same
age as Jesus when he died. Now I'm thinking, I'm the
same age as Paul the apostle. One of these days, I'll be
saying, I'm as old as John the apostle when he
died, Lord willing. But we have before us a letters
of Paul the aged, he is called, Paul the aged. And 1 Timothy and 2
Timothy and Titus, though we're not going
to cover that tonight. But we come in the order
of scripture to what are called three pastoral epistles. And the pastoral epistles
are written from Paul to leaders of congregations,
Timothy and Titus. Both of them, Paul calls,
my son in the faith or my true son in the faith. They were the offspring
of Paul the apostle in a spiritual dimension. They were the legacy
of his ministry. Both Timothy and Titus were
given ministry exposure, ministry experience, and
ministry responsibility by Paul the apostle. So he writes to them as
leaders of congregations. Respectively, Timothy
was in Ephesus. Titus was on the
island of Crete. And so he writes these personal
letters to these young leaders and tells them pastoral things. They're pastoral
epistles because he's speaking about pastoral things,
how to lead congregations, how to deal with problem issues,
different kinds of people in the congregation, the
call to the ministry, the qualifications for ministry,
how to care for those that you minister to. Now we know that
Paul the apostle traveled the world extensively. From the year 48
AD to about 56 AD, Paul traveled the world
preaching the gospel. Three missionary
journeys in which Paul traveled mostly by foot. We figure about, well,
over 10,000 miles. Between 48 and 56 AD, he
traveled about 10,000 miles. Between the year 56 AD and 60 AD
are years of conflict for Paul. It's where Paul worked
his way through the Roman judicial system. He is arrested in Jerusalem. He is taken to Caesarea. He stays there for a few years. He then gets on a
boat and goes to Rome. During that period of
time, he is working his way through the court system. And by 60, not
age 60, but 60 AD, he will make it to Rome,
where he will spend two years. Let's say 61 and 62 AD,
he is in Rome in prison once again under house
arrest, his own hired house, under house arrest. Then he gets released. And when he gets released from
about AD 62 to about AD 67, so about five years,
he has relative freedom to go where he wants to go. Caesar Nero has released
him after a trial. He reunites with Timothy,
reunites with Titus, probably goes to Colossae,
where he meets up with Philemon about
his slave Onesimus, which we'll get to next
time, Lord willing. And then he writes subsequent
letters, one to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon,
all in the holy scriptures. But then he gets arrested again. This time, he is taken
not to normal prison like he was before in
Rome under house arrest. He is put under heavy
security in what is called the Mamertine Prison. I'll speak a little
bit about that as we close 2 Timothy tonight. At the Mamertine Prison is
where he spends his final days. At which point, he writes his
final letter ever written. And that is 2 Timothy. So we get a letter to
Timothy earlier on and then a second letter to Timothy later
on just before Paul's death at around AD 68. Now it says, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, to Timothy. Timothy is a great name. It means one who honors God. And it was something that his
mother and perhaps grandmother gave him, both of which are
mentioned in the second letter that Paul writes to Timothy. But Timothy becomes
Paul's protege. He's the true son in the faith. He is from a town called Lystra. And Paul met him on the
first missionary journey as he was going through
Lystra and Derbe and Icomium, that
area of Galatia. He meets up with Timothy. And at which time,
Timothy is converted because mom and grandma probably
during that time were converted and young Timothy as well. When Paul makes his
second missionary journey through that area
of Lystra, he asked Timothy to join the Paul
the apostle Evangelistic Association. He becomes a team member, which
is interesting because Timothy, at the time he
joins Paul's team, was probably about 15
years old, maybe 16. But he was quite
young when he begins to learn the ministry ropes from
no greater discipler than Paul the apostle. He becomes very dear to
Paul through the years. He is mentioned a number
of times in the epistles. 22 times, I think, in all,
Paul mentions Timothy. And Paul gives
Timothy a description that he gives no one else. When he writes to
the Philippians, he says concerning
Timothy, for I have no one like-minded,
who will naturally care for your state. It's a great word, like-minded. The Greek word isopsuchos
means literally one soul or equal soul. My soul is equal to his soul. We track. We think alike. We value the same things. He places an emphasis
on the same things I do. If I want a replacement of
somebody who is most like me, it is young Timothy. He is isopsuchos. He is equal soul. He is like-minded. And now he writes him
a personal letter. 1 Timothy, if you're looking for
one verse that sums it all up, the key verse to this
book is found in chapter 3 Even though we haven't really
made much progress, turn over to chapter 3 verse 15 where
he says, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how
you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. That one verse encapsulates the
entire message of this book. It is the church
of the living God. It is the house of God. I know that it's fashionable
to go church shopping. We have our list of
ingredients of what we are looking for
in a church, one that caters to my needs, my
family's, things like this. And there are many to shop from. There are young ones. There are old ones. There are loud ones. There are quiet ones. There are ones that have
very, very long sermons. There are some that have
very, very short messages. Some people prefer that. One person I know
calls them sermonettes. Somebody said sermonettes are
really for Christianettes. In fact, another
person added to that and said sermonettes
are for Christianettes who can't wait to get outside
and smoke their cigarettes. So I guess you could
keep going with that. But though there
are many churches in the ecclesiastical
landscape from which to choose to meet your
requirements and your needs, too often, the one
that is left out is the founder of the church. And that is God. It is the house of God. It is the church
of the living God. And the question we ought to
ask is, is this a church of God where God is honored,
where Jesus is preached? If Jesus said, I'm going
to build my church, we should find a church
that Jesus is behind, that honors him, first
and foremost, that preaches his truth, his word. And so that's the summary verse. I'll take you back to chapter 1. Now let me give you a
division of the book. Since the book is
about the church, it is the first
pastoral epistle. Chapter 1 is the
message of the church. Chapter 2 is the
members of the Church. Chapters 3 and 4, the
ministers of the church. And chapter 5 and 6, the
ministry of the church. That's how I've divided it. You could have
lengthier divisions. But I find that helpful. The message of the
church is chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the
Lord Jesus Christ our hope, to Timothy, a true
son in the faith. You're going to see that little
construction throughout the New Testament, the faith. And when you see
that, the faith, it means the embodiment
of Christian truth summed up by that little phrase
the faith, the embodiment of Christian truth. It's same thing in Jude verse 3. I wanted to write
to you concerning the faith, the common faith. But I thought that I
needed to write to you and tell you that you
need to contend earnestly for the faith. So the faith is the
body of Christian truth. The faith relates to the truth
relates to the word of God. So it's the scriptures. It's the truth. It's what we hold to. It is the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace
from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I urged you, and
I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you
may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Now that's an important word in
these two epistles, doctrine. No other doctrine. Three words in English. One word in Greek,
heterodidaskalos. Heteros means another. In the Greek language,
there are two words for other, heteros and allos. Allos means another
of the same kind. Heteros means another
of a different kind. When he uses this
term, heterodidaskalia, it is a doctrine
of another kind. It is not true doctrine. It is false doctrine. And the fact that Paul would
warn Timothy of this just 30 years after the gospel
penetrated the world shows that it is
always an issue. It's always an issue. The propensity of mankind
is toward apostasy, toward turning away
from the truth. The gospel is just barely
penetrated the known world. And he is already warning them. And he will really warn
them in the next book. Nor give heed, verse 4, to
fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather
than godly edification, which is in the faith. Now I don't have time to
unravel all that was going on. I'll do so more in the
book of 1 John and 2 John when we go through that. But there was teaching
at the time known as gnosticism, where
they were adding all sorts of
mythological stories. They say they believed in Jesus. They loved Jesus. That's always
fashionable to say. Oh, I love Jesus. I follow Jesus. But get them to define Jesus. You might find a
different Jesus. Paul talked about a
different Jesus in Galatians. And the gnostics had
a different Jesus. They were adding mythological
stories saying, for instance, that Jesus never
had a physical body. He was a phantom. He didn't die on a cross. They even said God
didn't create the Earth because the world is material. God, they believed in
a philosophical dualism like the Greeks. God was pure and is pure,
and God would never create something so inherently evil. So emanations went out from
God, spirit emanations, hundreds of them, thousands of them. Eventually, an
emanation went out from God so far removed from
God it didn't even know God. That was the God that
created the Earth. Paul says, don't even
talk to these people or even engage in this nonsense. Now I just want, in passing,
to go stop by verse 8. He's talking about the
message of the church. And he's speaking about
those false teachers who are using the law unlawfully. We know that the law
is good, verse 8, if one uses it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous person but for the lawless,
the insubordinate, the ungodly, and
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of
fathers, murderers of mothers, man slayers,
fornicaters, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers,
if there is any other thing contrary to sound doctrine. Now he's speaking of the
law of Moses primarily. But there is a point
that I just could not escape given the highlighted
news of this week. The law, any law of any
culture, whether it's the law of Moses and the
ancient Israeli culture or the law in Rome or the
law in the United States, laws are in place to keep
lawbreakers in check. OK? So when I hear people
say, defund the police, it's the stupidest thing
I've ever heard in my life. You can defund the police
when you're in heaven, and we live in a
perfect society. But until then,
last time I checked, there be criminals out there. And we don't need less police. In my view, we need a
whole lot more police, and we need to highly fund. So my motto is not
defund the police. It's defend the police. Thank you if you're in the
police department, by the way. We honor you. And we pray for you. And we ask God for
wisdom for you. Thanks for keeping us safe. Couldn't resist. Verse 18, this charge,
I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the
prophecies previously made concerning you that, by them,
you may wage good warfare. So chapter 1 is the
message of the church. He's writing to
Timothy personally. Chapter 2, the
members of the church. He's going to talk
about men, women. He's going to go into
different age groups as we work our way
through the book. Therefore, verse 1, chapter
2, I exhort, first of all, that supplications, that strong
crying, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks
be made for all men, for kings, and all
who are in authority. I hope you pray for your
leaders, your president, vice president, governors,
mayors, people in authority. That we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all goodness and reverence, for this
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth. We belong to two
kingdoms as believers. We belong to the
kingdom of heaven. Once you said yes
to Jesus, your name was written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. You are going to live forever
in his kingdom in heaven but not right away. You have dual citizenship. Yes, our citizenship is in
heaven, Philippians 3:20, tells us, from which we
look for that appearing of our glorious
Savior Jesus Christ. But we also are
citizens of the Earth. And we have a
responsibility to the Earth. Now we live in our culture. But then there is the kingdom. And listen, Jesus didn't
come to build a culture. And we like to talk about our
culture, the white culture, the black culture, the Hispanic
culture, the American culture. Jesus didn't come
to build a culture. He came to build a kingdom. And the kingdom
transcends all cultures. That's why we can be one. That's why we can look at
anyone of any race, of any age, of any ilk, and say,
if you know Christ, you are my brother and
my sister because we're part of the kingdom. And yet, we find
ourselves citizens of the kingdom and citizens
of the kingdoms of this Earth that we have a responsibility. And one of the
responsibilities is to pray for those in
leadership, as this says. Jesus, when he prayed
for his followers, said, father, I don't pray that
you take them out of the world. I just pray that you keep
them from the evil one. He wants us in the world. He wants us to make an
impact in the world, but he does not
want us to become of the world, tainted by the
world, influenced by the world. He wants us to
influence the world. We're the salt of the Earth,
the light of the world. So we have a responsibility. Keep in mind, when Paul says
we had to pray for kings, Caesar Nero was on
the throne in Rome, the very man who would
take his head off his body, behead him in 68 AD. Paul says, pray for him. Pray for these kings. Pray for their salvation. Pray that the Lord
might turn them around. Verse 8, speaking of
prayer, I desire, therefore, that the men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. I remember the first
time I saw somebody lift their hands in worship,
the very first time I saw it. I'll be honest with you. I thought it was goofy. I was a young California surfer. I walked into a big
tent that was called Calvary Chapel at the time. It was a church. And I thought, OK, this is cool. And there wasn't really-- it was just kind
of dirt and then rug put on the dirt
and chairs on it. I thought, this place is for me. I like this. It's real cas. But then somebody next
to me, this young girl and this young guy had their
hands raised during worship. And I just thought, are they
like little antennas going up? What is it? In my background, it was
just unfamiliar to me. Now I lift my hands
with abandon now. I love it. Do it without wrath or doubting. Do it because when
you lift your hands, it's a sign of surrender. When your hands are up,
you can't do anything. You can't defend yourself. You can't go after somebody. You're vulnerable. You're surrendered. That's the idea of you're
surrendered to God. Now I do want you to get this
nuance because the verse says, I desire, therefore,
that the men. You see the definite
article before men? That is because he is
not speaking of humankind generically. He is speaking specifically
of the male gender. And that is because he is
addressing men that they should be leaders in the church. They should certainly be
leaders in their home. But they are the ones
that should be leading, when the congregation
gets together, the worship, the praying. They should be ones who step
forward and are willing to lead in the community. So I wish that men
lift holy hands without wrath and doubting. In like manner,
also, that the women adorn themselves
in modest apparel-- that's now in the church-- with propriety and
moderation, not with braided hair or gold or
pearls or costly clothing. The practice back then was to
weave gold strands and pearls into the hair to show off many
times in certain social events to show off their own
status and wealth. Paul says, this is the church. You don't need to show off. So don't do that, but
which is proper for women professing godliness
with good works. Simply put, the
church is for worship. The church is not to
be a fashion show. Don't get dressed
with the idea of, what will they think
when they see me? Will they like what they see? So should I wear a
plunging neckline, so that the men will
see how shapely I am? So don't do anything to
draw attention to yourself. Because, women, you already
know that men have a problem in this issue, in this arena. Jesus addressed it. The Bible addressed it. Everybody's aware of that. And so don't add to the
problem by doing something that would take their
attention off of the Lord and put it on to you. Arthur W. Pink wrote
something that I always liked. He said, if lustful looking
is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose
themselves with a desire to be looked at and lusted
after are not less but perhaps more guilty. In this matter, it is not
only too often the case that men sin but women
tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt
of the great majority of modern misses who deliberately seek
to arouse the sexual passions of young men. Listen, we know what
David did with Bathsheba. But it would have been
helpful if Bathsheba would not have bathed on her rooftop. I'm not saying that
he's not culpable. He is. But both of us, all of
us have responsibilities for propriety, as the scripture
says, within the church. So that's the members
of the church. When we get to chapter 3, we get
to the ministers of the church. Notice how it begins. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the
position of a bishop, episkopos is the word, it means
that an overseer, an elder, a pastor, he
desires a good work. And then Paul begins in verse
2 all the way down to verse 7 a list of qualifications,
16 of them to be exact for those
who are qualified for pastoral ministry,
for being an elder, for being an overseer. When we get to verse
8, likewise, deacons must be reverent, holy. It doesn't mean they should
be a reverend but reverent. By the way, I never
liked the word reverend. Reverend, I don't like
to be called reverend because reverend is a
word with a D only applied in the scriptures to God. Holy and reverend is his name. I can have an
reverent disposition. You can have a
reverent disposition. But don't call me reverend. You can call me Skip. You can call me friend. You can even say, hey you. But first of all, you
don't have to give me any special accolades. And certainly, don't give me
a name that was designed only for God the father to take. But deacons should also
be holy, be reverent, not double tongued,
not given to much wine, not greedy for money. Now there is an
interesting comparison between the
qualifications for deacons and the qualifications
for elders. In some cases, they're similar. In some cases, they differ. The idea is they should
be exemplary both. What's interesting is when he
says that deacons shouldn't be given to much wine,
it says of pastors, they shouldn't be given to wine. Now it's like, well, you're
a deacon, so don't overdo it. Don't be given to much wine. Not greedy for money,
holding the mystery of the faith with
a pure conscience. A deacon is a servant. Where does it come from? Well, in Acts, chapter
6, there was an argument in the church in Jerusalem. And it was an argument
between widows. Some Greek widows,
they were Jewish, but they were Greek widows, were
complaining about the Jerusalem Hebrew widows
because they thought favoritism was given to the
Hebrew widows of Jerusalem in the daily administration of
giving them what they needed for their sustenance. So an argument broke out. The apostles stepped forward
to solve the argument. And they said, look, we are not
going to leave the word of God and serve tables. So choose seven men
full of the Holy Spirit with a good reputation that
we can appoint over this. And we'll let them do it. Those were called--
those servants, the Greek word is diakonos,
deacons, servants. Sometimes the word refers
to an official position within the church. Sometimes it just refers to
anybody who wants to serve. We'll just practically
serve and help out. So the qualifications are given. Chapter 4 continues
and gives warnings to those who would fall away. Verse 1 of chapter 4,
the spirit expressly says in the latter times, some
will depart from the faith. That means the body
of Christian teaching. Some will depart
from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits
and doctrines of demons, that is, doctrines
taught by demons speaking lies and hypocrisy, having
their own conscience seared with a hot iron. I'm not going to make
much comment on that because some of this forms the
base of what I'm going to be talking about Sunday morning. So go down to verse 6. If you instruct the
brethren in these things, you will be a good minister
of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and
of good doctrine, which you have carefully followed. Paul always was telling
Timothy, watch your doctrine. Teaching, the words of
instruction that you dole out, it was an important
word to him, didaskalia, not heterodidaskalia,
just didaskalia, good, wholesome teaching. Again, I'll drill more
down on that this weekend. Paul wanted to make
sure that Timothy, being this young
man in the ministry, wasn't just given
over to enthusiasm but that his enthusiasm was
rooted in doctrinal truth. Because some people make it
all about the show, all about the enthusiasm, all
about the excitement. But there's no
substance behind it. Paul knew if I can
get this man grounded in good, doctrinal,
foundational, substantive truth, he'll have something
to get excited about. That's good to get
excited about, truth. So give yourself to
that, he instructs him. When we look at the last two
chapters, chapter 5 and chapter 6, now he is dealing with
the ministry of the church, not just the ministers
of the church. And he deals with, again,
different age groups, different types of needs
within those age groups, how to handle different people,
older people, younger people, truth seekers, false
teachers, et cetera. Chapter 5, verse 1, do
not rebuke an older man. Now mark this. I was Paul the apostle's
age when he died. Don't rebuke an older man. I'm not going to
drill on that one. But exhort him as a father,
younger men as brothers, older women as mothers-- I love this-- younger women
as sisters with all purity. Honor widows who
are really widows. Then in the next verse,
verse 4, down to verse 16, he gives qualifications
of widows because widows who are
really widows and met the qualifications would
be, in those days, handled, taken care of by the church. They didn't have any
outward sustenance. They didn't have
any support network. So the church became
that for them. In verse 14, he
says, I therefore desire the younger widows
marry, bear children, manage the house, give no
opportunity to the adversary, to speak reproachfully,
for some have already turned aside after Satan. If any believing man
or woman has widows, let them relieve
them and do not let the church be burdened
that it may relieve those who are really widows. Let the elders who
rule be countered worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture says,
you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. And the laborer is
worthy of his wages, speaking of monetary
remuneration. Do not receive an
accusation against an elder except from two or
three witnesses. And those who are sinning
rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear. Go down to chapter 6. Same theme, the
ministry of the church. Let as many bond
servants under the yoke-- that is, they're
owned by a master, they're under the
yoke of servitude-- count their own masters
worthy of all honor, so that the name of God in his
doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have
believing masters, let them not despise them
because they are brethren but rather serve them because
those who were benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. In this chapter,
at the beginning, Paul deals head-on
with the master-servant or the master-slave
relationship. And he does so,
the New Testament does so in about six different
places, not just here, but also in the books of 1 Corinthians,
Ephesians, Colossians, Titus, and Philemon. What you need to
understand is, at the time, Rome ruled the world. Rome ruled with an iron fist. There was no democracy. If you didn't like Caesar Nero,
you could not vote him out of office. He could just kill you. So it was under the
powerful iron fist of Rome. And Rome had 60, not six,
not 16, 60 million slaves. Up to about half of the
Roman Empire's population, at some points in their
history, about half were slaves. Now the slavery in
the Roman Empire wasn't like some
of the slavery that happened in England on slave
ships and in the Americas. There were many educated slaves. There were tutors,
teachers, doctors. Luke was a slave. He was a physician, highly
trained, highly educated, highly respected, but under
the servitude of a master. So those relationships,
interestingly, were dealt with. Now I say interestingly
because once you get a master and
a slave in church, Paul's contention is
you are on equal ground. Because now you're
not in the culture. You're in the kingdom. And in the kingdom,
you are brothers. And you treat each
other as brothers. This is why a runaway slave by
the name of Onesimus, whom Paul talked to in Rome, Paul brings
Onesimus back to his owner named Philemon. And he says, look,
I'm beseeching you. I'm imploring you. Receive Onesimus,
your runaway slave. Now Philemon could
have killed him, could have branded him
with an F, fugitive. For life, he would be banished. Or he could have received him. Paul says, receive him
this time not as a slave but as a brother. Let there be a reconciliation. And then he said, if
he's wronged you anything or if he owes you
anything, I'll pay for it. I'm getting ahead of myself
because that's Philemon. I want to get to that next week. But that's how he dealt with it. But listen to the bottom
line statement on this issue. Galatians chapter 3, verse 28,
there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female,
but we are all one in Christ. That's the kingdom that
transcends the culture. Now I'm going to take you
all the way now to the end of the book, verse 20. Oh, Timothy, guard which
was committed to your trust. What was committed to his trust? The faith, the truth, the word. Guard what was
committed to your trust. Avoid profane and idle, and
I love what he calls them, babblings. There's people who just babble. They do? Where? Well, Twitter is a repository
of the most ridiculous babble you could ever read
honestly, in my view. There's really not much edifying
in any of that platform. Anyway. I better just keep going. So avoid profane and idle
babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called
knowledge by professing it. Some have strayed
concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. Now he's writing to Timothy. Notice, oh, Timothy. But see in verse 21, it
says, grace be with you. He's not writing to Timothy. He's writing to a group because
it's in the original language. You is the plural you. We might say y'all. We might say, oh, Timothy, guard
what is committed to your trust but grace be with y'all. So who's y'all? Well, Timothy is the
pastor of Ephesus. The y'all would be
the church at Ephesus. So what this tells
me, and this is why I'm halting here
just for a moment, is not only was this a
letter for Timothy to read. It was no doubt a letter that
Paul intended Timothy to read to y'all, to the whole
church at Ephesus. He would stand up and read. A lot of the
letters in antiquity were read to the whole church. This one as well. So Paul was released from
prison, as I mentioned. He was there two years
under house arrest. He is released. He goes to Colossae,
during which time he meets with Philemon about
his runaway slave Onesimus. We'll cover that next time. He's reunited with Timothy,
reunited with Titus. He tells Timothy, Timothy,
you go to Ephesus. I started the church there. But you go there. And you're the second
guy, senior pastor. You, Titus, you go to
Crete, the island of Crete. And you handle the issues
that are springing up there. Then, at some point
in the future, Paul gets, as I
mentioned, rearrested. He is in the Mamertine
Prison in Rome. Now if you ever go to
Rome, and some of you have been with us
to Rome, we take you to the Mamertine Prison. They have discovered it. And they have discovered
the actual holding cell where Paul the apostle
spent his final days. It is essentially a
hole in the ground. It was fed by a pipe and a
hole, an opening in the top. It had no ventilation
but the opening on top. It was open to the elements. Food would be lowered down. He would be living with
whatever food he didn't eat. He would be living
with his own excrement. He would be living in that
hollow pit, that mire. It was solitary confinement. And he was there until
the time of his death. But in the Mamertine Prison,
he writes another letter to Timothy. And that is 2 Timothy. So we will review that. 2 Timothy, his final
words, not his words, but his final recorded words,
is really Paul's swan song. You know? A pastor never knows
when he's going to preach his last sermon. But Paul came to a place
where he realized, this is it. I'm not going to make
it out of this alive. This is the end of my life. And he records
that in this book. Now I know some pastors
who say, the last sound I ever want to hear is the sound
of my chin hitting the pulpit. I get that. I understand the
sentiment behind that. You want to minister to the end. But that would not be good for
your congregation to see that, to have you them see
you die on the spot, cracking your skull
open on the pulpit. Just saying. But this is Paul's last sermon. And these were dark days
when Paul penned these words. And so keep that in mind. Paul is writing this in
the Mamertine Prison. He sees no hope for
his future in terms of his life on this Earth. He sees great hope in
the future kingdom, but he knows he's going to die. So what he does in
this book, though, is he details, in these
dark days, dark days ahead for the church, dangerous
days ahead for the church, especially in the last days. The last days which
is a technical phrase. I don't have time to uncover
all that that means now. But there are four
chapters in this book. And each chapter has,
I'll give it, a heading. I'll give it an outline. Chapter 1 is about
the present calling. Chapter 2 is about
pastoral character or any character of any leader. So present calling, chapter 1. Pastoral character, chapter 2. Chapter 3 is practical concern. This is where Paul says,
there's bad people out there. And people are going to
turn away from the faith. And then finally, chapter
4, a personal charge. We begin in chapter 1. We're just going to overview it. The present calling,
and the present calling is, basically, look, stay loyal
even while you're suffering, Timothy. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God, according to the
promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus
to Timothy, a beloved son. Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve
with a pure conscience as my forefathers did,
as without ceasing, I remember you in my
prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you
being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance
the genuine faith that is in you,
which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois
and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in you also. Therefore, I remind you to
stir up the gift of God. That is, keep the
fire alive, Timothy. Stir up the gift of God, which
is in you through the laying on of my hands for God has not
given us the spirit of fear but of power and love
and of a sound mind. I am guessing that
Timothy was discouraged. He was discouraged
because of the state of the church in Ephesus. He thought he wasn't
up to the task. He thought that he was too
young perhaps for the task. He couldn't handle it. After all, who can
follow Paul the apostle? So Paul writes to encourage him. I love that Paul talks
about Timothy's upbringing with his grandma and mom. I love that. I love that he mentions
the faith that they had that they passed on to him. I love that. And this is something
we consider. We dedicate children
at this church. And we love to do it. Love to hold a baby. I don't know when they'll let
us do that again, hold babies. But when they do, we love it. Maybe we'll have to
wear a hazmat suit. We'll do it. But love to dedicate babies. But also, we meet
with the parents beforehand because we're
dedicating the babies, but we want to make sure
mom and dad are dedicated. It does no good to
dedicate your baby and say a little
prayer with everybody if you're not committed to
raising the child in the faith. You got to be dedicated. You're going to dedicate them. Got to dedicate you. You need to be
dedicated to Christ. Abraham Lincoln had a great--
he had a lot of great sayings. One of his great sayings
was, if you want your child to walk in the way that he
should go when he gets older, you need to walk in
that way yourself. There was a couple
of seminary grads that were talking about
Bible translations. And these Bible nerds were
talking about which one they preferred. One of them said,
well, I've always liked the Old King
James version because of the majesty of language. And another piped in
and said, oh, that's just so hard to understand. I prefer the New
American Standard version because it's the most accurate
to the Greek language. And someone else said, I
prefer a more fluid translation like the NIV. And a fourth guy who was
in on the conversation said, I like my parents'
translation the best. And they laughed. They said, what do you mean
your parents' translated it? He said, yes. They translated the
truth of the Bible into their everyday lives. And it's been the most
convincing translation I've ever read. When you see it in a life
lived out, it's convincing. Timothy had that background
of Jewish grandmother, Jewish mother who became
believers and passed it on. Verse 8, therefore, do not
be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord nor
of me his prisoner but share with me in the
sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. Go down to verse 15. This, you know-- and
this is sad to me-- that all those in Asia
have turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus
and Hermogenes. Boy, I wouldn't-- we don't
really know who they are. Probably they were
aspiring leaders. They had a lot of giftedness. But they deserted
either the faith, or they deserted the calling. And they were too scared
of the persecution. But they turned away. And to me, it's interesting that
Paul was OK with naming them. Sometimes we, as
Christian leaders, are really, really careful about
naming names of famous people who are false
prophets and heretics. I think we do a service to
people when we name them. Paul did this not
once but a few times. He'll do it again with
Alexander the coppersmith has done me much harm. May the Lord repay him
according to his deeds. How would you like to be that
guy named in the Bible by Paul? Ouch. Well, he did it. Chapter 2, verse 1,
you, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. This is now pastoral character. And the things that
you have heard from me among many witnesses,
commit these to faithful men who will be
also able to teach others also. Beautiful, beautiful verse. You, therefore,
must endure hardship as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. Now just notice in
the next few verses all of the mixture of
metaphors that Paul uses for this young man in ministry. You have to endure hardship as
a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Verse 3, no one
entangled in warfare entangles himself in
the affairs of this life that he may please him who
is enlisted as a soldier. And also, if anyone
competes in athletics-- now he's an athlete-- he is not crowned
unless he competes according to the rules. Verse 6, the
hardworking farmer-- so it's the third
metaphor-- must be the first to
partake of the crops. Consider what I say. And may the Lord give you
understanding in these things. I think the bottom
line, without trying to unravel all the metaphors
in the six minutes I have left, is to say Paul is
getting to this issue. If you're going to be
in ministry, Timothy, it's going to be hard. You've got to be persistent. You've got to stick with it. You got to stay at it. Whether you're a hardworking
farmer or an athlete who trains every day or a
soldier who says, yes, sir, to the commanding officer but
is in a very difficult post, stay at it. Determination,
verse 15, verse 14, remind them of these things,
charging them before the Lord not to strive about
words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Notice the wording, be
diligent, that hard work again. Ever heard of J. Vernon McGee? So I had the privilege
of meeting him. I had the privilege of having
him speak at our church here. And I interviewed him the day
that he spoke at our church, maybe the day after actually. And I asked him, I
said, Dr. McGee, there's very few people like
yourself who are committed to teaching the whole Bible. I mean, every pastor
teaches from the Bible, a Bible verse here,
a Bible verse there. But you are committed
to teaching from Genesis to Revelation. You're a true expositor. Why is it that so many
pastors, in your view, do not teach the
whole counsel of God? And he said, the classic Jay
Vernon McGee Texas drawl, he said, because they're all lazy. Well, Paul is saying, young
Timothy, don't be lazy. Be diligent. Teach it all. Teach them the truth. Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Rightly dividing means
to cut a straight line or to plow a straight furrow
or to build a straight road. That's the idea. Paul was a tent maker. He had to cut very
straight lines in the skins to make tents. Very precise in what he did. And I think the idea here
is build a straight road and don't get sidetracked
into the vain babblings and the arguments and
the issues that everybody wants you to get involved in. Just preach the word. Stay at it. I think that's
really the idea here. Now when we-- I have to hold my page because
this air conditioning is blowing like it's Alaska. But anyway. Chapter 3, we get to
the practical concern. Once again, Paul is thinking
about this in 1 Timothy but really a lot in this book. He says, verse 1,
chapter 3, but know this, that in the last days,
perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderers 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. And from such people turn away. Again, can I remind you? The gospel has barely penetrated
the known world at the time. It's just over 30 years
that the gospel has gone out from Jerusalem and now
by the hands of Paul and the mouth of
Paul the apostle. There's a haunting
question Jesus asked while he was on the Earth. He said, when the
son of man returns, will he find faith on the Earth? He's not going to find much. If I go by what I see today,
he's not going to find much. When the son of man
returns, will he find faith on the Earth? Paul said this is an
ever-present problem. Again, I'll deal more with
that during the weekend. But go to chapter
4, the last chapter. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, it's
now a personal charge. I charge you,
therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at
his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. These are Paul's
final words recorded. Preach the word. Don't preach your opinions. Don't preach just what
you think are the issues. Preach the word. Be ready in season
and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exort 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, they will heat up for
themselves teachers. You can always find
somebody who will tell you what you want to hear. And they will turn their
ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, talking
to you, Timothy, be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. Fulfill your ministry. Then he uses himself
as an example. He's saying, Timothy,
you started well. Finish well. End well. It's one thing to
start really well. I know a lot of Christians
that start with a bang but end with a whimper. Such promise and then veeew. Timothy, don't give up now. It's too soon to quit. Keep going, buddy. Finish well. I love evangelism. I love seeing people
come to Christ. We applaud when somebody does. But do you realize that's
just the beginning? The applause goes to the one
who crosses the finish line. Christianity is not
just obstetrics. It's all the way to geriatrics. And when somebody walks
faithfully with the Lord, then dies in that glorious
estate, that's the hallelujah. And he gives his own example. Verse 6, for I am already being
poured out as a drink offering. The time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for
me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, will give me on that
day, and not to me only but also to all those who
have loved his appearing. I can't help but just
look at verse 13. Bring the cloak that I
left with Carpus at Troas when you come and the
books, especially the what? Parchments. If you're wondering,
where did you get the name for your bookstore? This verse. I lifted it right out of here. Parchments. Alexander the coppersmith
has done me much harm. May the Lord repay him
according to his works. That's the verse I
was telling you about. Go all the way to the
end, if you don't mind, because we're out of time. Verse 22, the Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen or Amen, depending
on where you're from. Either way. OK. I closed the book. Then as Paul put down his
pen, sometime after that, he was taken from
the Mamertine Prison. He was walked a few yards
away to the Basilica Julia, the court built
by Julius Caesar himself. He stood final trial
before Caesar Nero. A death sentence was given to
Paul but a noble death sentence according to the Romans. Now this isn't going
to make sense to us. But if you're a Roman
citizen, and Paul was, you couldn't be crucified. That was an ignominious death. You couldn't be stoned to death. Same. So you were granted a
noble death of beheading. Paul was taken outside of
town on the Appian Road. His head was placed on a block. A man with an ax,
a soldier came by. And with one final swipe,
Paul the apostle, my age, went instantly from the imperial
city to the eternal city. And that was his hope. And that is our hope. Don't know how
we're going to die. We're all going to die. I hope you're not afraid. Because no matter how
you die, whether it's COVID or a car accident
or airplane accident or old age, what awaits
you is the eternal city. And I can't wait to
see Paul in glory. Say, dude, I read your books. Great to meet you. Father, more than that, we
get to see you face-to-face. Heaven will not be about Paul. It will be about Jesus. Just like the church
now is about Jesus, and we glorify
you in this place. And we thank you that
we're gathering again to study the word of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this Teaching From The Bible From 30,000 Feet.
