Dealing with Difficult People

the following message by Aleister Begg is made available by Truth For Life for more information visit us online at truthforlife.org well I hope we're beginning to get the picture that Paul's great concern in writing this letter is that just as he recognizes his race is almost run so that Timothy will also finish the race and he's such a good guide and tutor to Timothy that he is concerned that he will not be caught off guard by the things that he will encounter and so in many ways here as he gets to what is for us the third chapter he is laying out for him the nature of the challenges that he faces and as we said yesterday any good leader knows the importance of Delegation and in delegating it is important to prepare uh the one who is taking up the charge and some of you are doctors and you know how important it is to help those of us who are patients to be prepared for what lies ahead I was in Glasgow up in Kelvin Grove on Sunday as it turned out and we drove past a place that I had remembered uh visiting a doctor there and I only remember while I remember a couple of things but I remember what he said to me he said if you can survive the next 40 seconds it will be plain sailing from there so I said okay that's good I think I can do 40 seconds I did but anyway that's why I remember it in this in the same way pilots on planes some of them don't say a thing and they leave you just to wonder about what what's going to happen some of them and they're good I think are British Airways and there's something about that English accent that at least it reassures me a little bit and they usually say things like you know it will be a little bumpy on the climb but it should settle out that should is very very important I was coming across here a couple of months ago and as we left Washington uh the champ said you know it looks like it's going to be a very pleasant flight he said we do cross the Airstream on a couple of occasions that's all he said so I made a note I wonder what that's like because you can't see it it's clear air turbulence and then just as I thought I was falling asleep we crossed it and if you know some of your Pilots you know that crossing the jet stream is strong enough in places to cause an airplane to drop as much as 30 meters and I'm sure we didn't go down that far but it was enough to say aha that is what you were referring to thank you for letting me know because I don't want them to be surprised I mean I don't want to hear them going whoa what happened there goodness gracious Pilots running back and forth going to the bathroom unbelievable no so that's what he's doing here look at the opening phrase but understand this don't be naive Timothy there are difficult times ahead you might as well know that Timothy that there are going to be Seasons throughout the last days where living for Jesus will be particularly challenging if you like in the turbulence it's going to be important for you to fly the instruments if you try and operate on the basis of your feelings you will be a danger to yourself and you will be a danger to those under your care and so he wants him to think correctly remember we saw that he said if you think about this the Lord will give you insight and now once again he's calling him to use his mind understand this what these times of difficulty in the last days now that little phrase in the last days is enough to cause us to be reminded of the 14th verse from yesterday where Paul says remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words and one of the words that I found people love to quarrel about well one of them is the rapture that's two words I know the other is the Millennium and if you want to stir up a hornet's nest then all get together have a coffee and tell everybody what you think you know about when the last days are in order to prevent that happening let me just remind you of what the Bible says about the life stays that the last days were ushered in with the coming of the Lord Jesus we read from Hebrews chapter 1 didn't we many in various ways of all but in these last days when Peter preaches on Pentecost and folks are making all kinds of Assessments as to what's going on Peter says no you need to understand if you will read your Bible you would understand that this is what Joel was talking about in the last days these things would happen now clearly there will be last days to the last days but the point that is made here is essentially that there is a timelessness about these seasons of difficulty that no Believers actually will live their lives exempt from the difficulties that will inevitably come as a result of hostility to the truth of the Gospel and in between the comings of Jesus his followers are going to face Grievous Fierce difficult times the word that is used here is a is an uncommon word it is a word that you find actually in the the story that uh Jonathan just referenced when he talked about the demons being cast into the pigs and in that section there in Matthew chapter 8 the two demon-possessed men were so Fierce that nobody could pass by them it is that sense of animosity Fierce difficulty that is referenced here now what he goes on to point out is that people are the problem people are the problem and so you come to this section that doesn't make very pleasant reading does it for people will be now we could spend all the morning on this and we're not going to but if you look at the opening phrase and the closing phrase uh which comes at the end of four you see that this unsavory catalog of things is contained within these two end points on the one hand people will be lovers of self on the other hand rather than lovers of God and that is the context in which he then says here are some of the characteristics of a place of a time of a people of a society where these two factors are prevalent because you see self-love the love of self is the opposite of all that God intended for us it is to love ourselves to love us as creatures rather than God as the Creator he made us for himself for so that we might in the words of the Shorter Catechism glorify him and enjoy him forever but instead we've decided that we should glorify ourselves I was in a bookstore in Suburban Cleveland just a couple of weeks ago I was looking for something else and as I came to the checkout there were opportunities to have um daily journals and I'm sure you can see this but I took a photograph of it I wasn't going to buy it I see that you have a Scotsman as the treasurer so laughs it simply says I totally got this I totally got this a journal to remind myself that I am truly awesome and capable isn't that this is not even funny this is this is this is this is tragedy this is to Timothy lovers of themselves and I'm seriously gonna nail it no matter what it is and no matter how much I secretly doubt myself if you don't like that one you can have this one I'm kind of awesome a journal to celebrate the glory that is me myself and I because really what is it for me to lose not only by believing in myself but by spreading my plumage and letting everybody know who I am what a fascinating generation we live in this is the generation that has given us the selfie the selfie of all things and some of you are into it you keep coming you keep coming up to me it's yeah you haven't met anyone unless you have a photograph with them when did this happen well no you say don't be rude well I'm not trying to be rude I mean I know they just amazing Discovery in the art world with another self-portrait of Van Gogh hidden behind another painting quite fascinating so Van Gogh and Rembrandt they were into selfies but not in the way that we are the journalists actually pick up on this uh writing in the New York Times Jenna Weston says these selfies are an attempt to Mark our short existence and hold it up to others as proof that we are here and more so Alicia Eller observes this is narcissism at its worst where we become our own biggest fans and private paparazzi so there we can secure it then we can disperse it then we can send it out so that everybody may know exactly where I am at this particular Moment In Time and that they will be thoroughly impressed by it it's interesting isn't it you see the self the self is really the place of worship today that's what Paul is saying here people will actually worship themselves and it will be along these lines I have the right as an individual to Define who I am what I am and what I want to be or I have a right to be happy in my own way and in my own terms and the gender discussions we'll call them discussions for now emanate from that essential love of self and I don't know whether you are recognizing this and I certainly don't want to overstate it but it seems to me that the challenge to the believability of the Bible the challenge to the doctrine of scripture that comes in this generation is a challenge that is worked along the lines of human sexuality the Bible cannot possibly be true because after all look at what it says about this but this hasn't always been the case I went back to check and I discovered that in 1988 Parliament here in the United Kingdom passed a law Banning schools from teaching quotes the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship section 28 of the bill outlawed positive depictions of same-sex relationships in classrooms section 28 12 years later was repealed that was 2000 2005 gay and lesbian couples were allowed to adopt in England and Wales 2013 same-sex marriage was legalized and suddenly within a quarter of a century our nation has lived through an immoral Revolution and we now stand at the very threshold of all that is before us and Jonathan is right we're either going to Bow our knees to the sufficient Authority and timelessness of the Bible or we will be swept away by that which comes to us not simply from a secular culture but from a clergy that has now themselves lost confidence in the Bible and at the time [Applause] this is not America and I and I like the fact at a time when our world is most aware of its Brokenness and its need which is to be answered in an unerring gospel message those who are The Proclaimers of the Gospel message have lost confidence in the message understand this Timothy there will be times of difficulty people will be in love with themselves acquisitiveness the love of money and assertive disregard for other people proud arrogant abusive displayed in family life disobedient to their parents ungrateful Unholy heartless lacking in natural affection and when these times of difficulty emerge and when they take hold there will be within that environment a glaring disturbing absence of gratitude of respect of affection of reasonableness and the vacuum will be filled just read your Bibles the but the vacuum will be filled by brutality recklessness and unbridled conceit brutality recklessness unbridled conceit I didn't do this because I don't have a newspaper this morning but if I had time and got up early enough then I would have taken today's newspaper and I would have just taken a magic marker and I would I would have underlined all the characteristics that are represented here in 2 Timothy 2 that are presented to us as expressions of a culture that is said no to God and has said yes to itself the inevitable results of that decline are absolutely clear for anybody who's thinking now obviously it's not a complete picture because that if it was this would be hell on Earth but the grace of God holds back these tides of wickedness and the same grace of God that holds back those Tides is the same Grace that is entrusted to us to be a part of penetrating those Tides lovingly clearly decisively unashamedly I don't think it is possible for somebody who is really thinking that you meet along the way to say anything other than the fact of our world it would seem at least in Western culture is just broken it's broken whether you want to think about it politically or familiarly or sexually or whatever you want to talk about it's not difficult for people to say you know I don't know what happened it's like the whole thing turned upside down it capsized well of course we know why God made everything beautiful and perfect and one day I knew heaven and a new Earth but right now it's a broken world you know Bob Dylan is in his early 80s and he's he's heading this way did you know get your tickets now um he's doing nine concerts I think he's doing two of them in Glasgow as some people like him some people don't I'm not sure he's my favorite poet and when he wrote this particular song I don't think he was having his best day the song is called Everything Is Broken bottles broken plates broken switches broken Gates broken dishes broken parts streets are filled with broken hearts ain't no use jiven ain't no use joking everything is broken it's broken look at the educational system from 1988 when you couldn't do that in a school to today in Scotland in those same schools what in the world happened where was the church in the middle of this where is the church times of difficulty we're all going to run away and hide our light under a bushel not a call to be obnoxious it's a call to be clear and what is staggering and we mustn't miss this is that Paul actually is not talking supremely about a secular environment that is pressing in but he's talking about a professed religious establishment that is losing its focus verse 5 you see these people have an appearance of godliness spirituality is involved but they actually deny its power they profess to know God but they deny him by their works and he actually describes them not in very flattering terms does he they are detestable of course he had warned them of this hadn't he he wrote uh or Luke records it for us in in 20 of Acts from among your own selves will arise Fierce wolves who will draw away disciples after them and that is of course what we observe as history goes by it's a long time since Spurgeon was concerned about the downgrade controversy which was about the authority of the Bible but there is hardly a month passes without some dimension of professed organized religion and expressly in cases Evangelical Christianity where the chaos and the Brokenness from within it is not obvious to anyone who can see in the states at the moment the southern baptist denomination which would which is the largest denomination in the English-speaking world is under the watchful eye of all kinds of Investigations because of the number of clergy involved in sexual sin 700 victims at the moment have brought their material before this board Grievous and perilous times and as John Lennon said one thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside I don't care whether you wear your collar backwards I don't care whether you were a special hat I don't care if you carry a huge big Thompson Chain reference Bible there's one thing you can hide and that's why Paul is saying to Timothy Timothy you see you better watch your life and you better watch your Doctrine carefully because I am going and you are staying and you must make sure that you're serious about these things now I don't think we should imagine that these people were like ogres the devil doesn't come around with those pointed things and a big pitch for it no these were people who were probably living fairly successful lives but they were denying the power that they proclaimed probably slick attractive in contemporary terms they would have television or radio programs they would be able to gather a great crowd Timothy he says I want you to make sure that you speak straight concerning this let me give it to you straight in a phrase avoid such people avoid such people don't elect them to office don't give them Bishops roles avoid them internal hypocrisy in the history of mankind wrote starred in 73 in the history of mankind although it is a shameful thing to admit religion and morality have been more often divorced than married and he goes on to point out that the strategy of these individuals many of them very attractive I'm sure among that group some of them had become Adept at targeting a certain kind of woman it's very very important we understand that Paul's letters contain frequent references to the women who were part and parcel of the ministry that he was privileged to exercise in fact when he writes to Timothy in his first letter he is very concerned that Timothy understands how to deal with women who will be in the framework of his of his care and you remember he says to him you should treat the younger women as sisters and you should treat the older woman as mothers so that you might deal with them and treat them only thinking pure thoughts about them as wonderfully realistic isn't it I treat people the way I treat my sisters I love my sisters but you know I and every time I I you know I kiss them every so often I don't see him very much but there's nothing much to it you know that's the way it's supposed to be I tell the followers on my pastoral team if you have a lady who's coming to see you from our congregation and you're looking forward to it and it's not your wife or one of your girls daughters then have one of the other guys see her oh you say you're very silly no I'm not and what he's pointing out here is that in the context of his day there were those as in our day who are burdened they're bewildered they're Bewitched in our context I see them driving their cars they have just come from yoga they have crystals hanging from their uh Wing from their rear view mirror they have signs on the back that's that you couldn't if you if you put them all together you couldn't form any meaningful conclusion and and you I just look at them and God said you know this person is so vulnerable to anyone who comes along with a big story therefore why we want to may say to our ladies in the congregation make sure because these are your friends make sure you get the opportunity to tell them the real story they're vulnerable they're susceptible to this kind of approach Attractive people smooth talking people Satan's strategy never changes in the garden to Eve it was deceit and then the average household it Remains the Same well this is tough going is it not I can see looking at some of you you're like wow is this really in the Bible well that's why you have your Bibles open I hope that's why it's called the Bible reading I'm trying just to say what I'm what I see there these weak women and bad men creeping into places and this picture reminds Paul as a Jewish fellow who had grown up with an understanding of the ways of God in the past it reminds him of an incident from Exodus chapter 7 which you can read for your homework Janus and jambers they opposed Moses and he says you know they oppose Moses they tampered with the word of Moses and they actually are opposing me and they're tampering with the word which I am proclaiming which is the word of the Gospel they oppose the truth they're corrupted in their minds they are disqualified regarding the faith they have no business doing what they're doing they will not get very far because eventually the penny will drop for people they use terminology that is biblical they distort its meaning now it's it's impossible not to realize just the very forcefulness of the Apostle in this this is not about a personality conflict that is not about somebody that he doesn't like a certain group of people and so he's targeting them no he's speaking about something far more significant he's speaking about the fact that his demise and the transfer to Timothy is a very pivoting point of the apostolic and the post-apostolic church people would have every right of saying I wonder if there will even be a church which is actually what I hear people saying now in Scotland if the National Church goes away will the whole church go away well of course we know the answer to that it won't I will build my church and the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against it but from a human perspective it looks as though Christianity is losing about 10 nil and we're only about seven minutes into the game no Paul never pulled his conscience on this acts 13 is another homework passage for you and Luke tells us that he was on Cyprus he had the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to the pro-consul and there was a fellow there who was a rascal his name was elemus which actually means magician and he was a magician and the magician began to oppose Paul and his message and he tried expressly to turn the pro console away from the faith to Swerve him in another Direction and if you read there you will find that Paul's response was quite surprising he decided to form an ecclesiastical commission to discuss what we should do about the people who are opposing the gospel and he sent out a little tweet uh come come lmus try and be a sensible soul I can tell you've never read acts 13 now you're something you think you know he really said that I can't believe it no no that's why I said homework this is what he said you son of the devil you enemy of all righteousness full of Deceit and villainy will you not stop making crooked the straight Paths of the Lord that's very forceful is it not and I don't suggest that you or I should make any attempt at it not in your town don't find somebody that uh you think may fit the category and uh give him a dose of Acts chapter 13. this is an Apostolic response to an event that is crucial in the unfolding story of the Gospel but nevertheless and not listen I'll miss the point the same fellow who sister Timothy avoid these people is the one who spoke so directly once again Paul is not calling Timothy to an approach to life and Ministry that he himself has not been committed to and so it's important that they understand that that Timothy and those under his care realize that these people will not in the end get very far they'll they'll have a day in the sun again we see that as we get to verse 13 but eventually they'll be gone and just go to secondhand bookshops and you'll find that many of the things that were the Great threats in the past uh have have gone some of them linger like a few leaves on a tree in winter and the hardest ones to detect are those who are pastors of well-heeled congregations some of them in America using the language of the Bible but never themselves buying to his authority in its truth the problem is bad men weak women but we have a sovereign Lord and we remind ourselves that God is not threatened by counterfeits Luther who himself was pretty Adept at taking on a challenge and seeing it straightforwardly in fact sometimes a wee bit too straightforwardly you can only imagine what he would have been like if he didn't have his friend my length and holding his shirt tail all the time going oh Martin don't say that don't say that and then I'll try and cover for you you said it again but he was in the he was the height of the battle he would have read second Timothy and said this is a difficult time this fits and so he gives us his great hymn and though this world with Devils filled should threaten to undo us we shall not fear for God has willed his truth to Triumph through us Timothy understand this Timothy fly the instruments in the face of the turbulence and remember that this teaching is the teaching that came from my lips and from my pen and it is the teaching that is backed up by my life that's verse 10. this of course is the great challenge isn't it because so often for many of us who have now been entrusted with the Privileges of pastoral Ministry we have led ourselves the Lord and others down on the occasions where our life has actually contradicted our preaching and sometimes out of the mouths of babes you know we get this reproof um I've been driving anonymously at least I hope I have down this roadway here and trying not to pass people from the convention lest I do what I'm talking about and I've been known on the odd occasion to drive in the car and make comments on people striving like what is this idiot doing right now and uh don't don't you realize it's not possible to turn from here and we'll be here for the rest of our lives and on one occasion after I'd gone through a string of this sort of material in the silence that followed a little voice from the back of the car which was my son at that time he said and that's another kind word from your pastor [Applause] it was true but not Paul look at this you however have followed my teaching he goes through the whole thing my conduct my aim in life and so on you can read it for yourself he's not blowing his horn he he knew how to uh to this horn he he tells us that when he writes to the Philippians he was very very proud of his background and his education and his upbringing and so on but that when he met Jesus although he had reason to be grateful for all of that his identity was no longer wrapped up in that it was now wrapped up in who Jesus is and what Jesus had done for him and everything that he is able then to do from that point onwards in his conduct in his his purpose in life his faith patience love and so on are evidences of all of that and so he urges Timothy to recognize that Timothy then could poke into Paul's life the evidences that were found not simply in hearing him as he spoke from the pulpit as it were but in driving with him in the car and being with him in privacy and so on his teaching his conduct his purpose Faith patience love endurance his Sanctified Behavior all of these things you see are objective observable aspects of Paul's integrity what he's really able to say is there are no hidden territories in my life in contemporary terms you could say you could have my tax returns or I I can give you my phone for the afternoon you can have my laptop you can go through it all that's what he's saying a life of integrity that's why he said in First Corinthians what we quoted yesterday I think it was where he says you know I don't care if I'm judged by you or by any human Court my conscience is clear that doesn't make me innocent because he recognizes that the All-Seeing gaze of God searches the very innermost parts of his being and I don't care if you're in an accountability group because if you'll lie to God and lie to yourself you'll lie to your accountability group it is in the secret privacy of our own lives and in Paul's life which he was able to open up to Timothy and say Timothy you know this you know that I am not one of those fellas that I was referencing who has a form of godliness but denies its power you've been with me Timothy you know and the reason I'm reminding you of this is Timothy I see it in you son and I want you to be this man in the days that lie ahead and so Timothy was able to say yeah I know I know all of that and he actually identifies it he says you know about my persecutions and my sufferings and all the things that happened to me at Antioch at Iconium and at Lister which persecutions I endured and from which the Lord rescued me well of course you we've got it all you just can read in an Antioch he escaped before they stoned him in Iconium acts 14 they actually stoned him they dragged him out of the city and left him for dead and in uh lystra in in Iconium they stoned him and in Lister they stoned him too and he was dragged out and left for dead it's pretty hard to preach the Prosperity Gospel out of that isn't it you know uh the key to successful Christian Living is that you will be healthy wealthy and wise well what in the world happened to you Paul seems to me that you've got it completely upside down and and when you want to testify to uh the the evidences of God's grace you remind us of these Dreadful things but he says you know this is not unique to me Timothy all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted one way or another again I think this is something that we're going to have to lay hold on because now we are definitely in in Aliens and strangers now we live in a foreign place now we're like the Jews in the Exile now we're going to have to find out what it is to be the bad people how to be very good bad people in the minds of people living in a culture that doesn't like anybody to live for Jesus and one of the things we need to recognize is that the things that are supposed to incur people's animosity are not bad features of our lives our judgmentalism our political preoccupations or whatever that might be no but rather the sense of other worldly godliness that is prepared to meet and greet people where they are and start where they are but John when he writes the Apostle of love he writes to his folks he says do not be surprised that the world hates you Jesus said that if the world hates you know that it is hated me before it hates you Now by and large I have lived my life reading stuff like that and saying well that explains North Korea or that explains China in the cultural revolution or that explains this and that and so on in other words I need to read either a geography book or a history book to try and contextualize it but not anymore not anymore and none of us like to be hated blessed is the man who walks not in the Council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of Sinners nor sits in the seat of the scoffers but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he made it day and night he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season and whatsoever he does prospers the wicked are not so who are the wicked we are the wicked by Nature apart from the Redeeming Grace of God the wicked are not so but they're like the chaff which the wind blows away therefore the wicked will not stand in a judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous this is of eternal life and death significance I saw a picture for the National Health and giffnock the other day on the side of a bus it was a very cheeri-looking nurse and she said we are looking for the ones who are helpful well Christians ought to be at the Forefront of that charge don't you think adopting children that are rejected no simply crowing about the nature of abortion but doing something in relationship to it and even when we do these things Jesus says don't be surprised and actually will look as though Christians are facing the very worst and yet what he says is that the people who are going from bad to worse will go from bad to worse they are deceiving people and they are simultaneously being deceived but as for you he does this all the time doesn't he you however but as for you he says I want you to continue when all the innovators arrive claiming to be the future and it happens all the time the wave of the future for the church I've lived through many of them at a Seeker sensitive movement I was going to be the key to the Future uh the purpose-driven church if you're not doing that you're nowhere if you haven't barked like a dog in the Toronto blessing there's no hope for you if you're not a member of the emerging church or the hybrid church or whatever the church is called then frankly you should fold it up and go home because this is where it's all going and guess what it has all virtually gone and we've got Faithful Men in parishes remote areas of the highlands of Scotland and throughout Wales and into Ireland and on Faithful Men Who are simply saying day by day this is the word of God listen to this listen to this here is the best news the world has ever heard and God honors such faithfulness and if we read history and we think about 19th century England was it 19th century check but the darkness of a place then people would have said oh goodness gracious there's no way back from this and then a lady had a baby Mrs Wesley and then another lady had a baby Mrs Whitfield two baby boys and the rest is history and praying for the youngsters in these places here what a joy to see these children running around singing his songs what an unsought privilege to be amongst the teenagers last night as they tried to humiliate me as best he could and it wasn't difficult for them I guarantee no he says listen Timothy just continue in what you've learned just stay the course just put one foot in front of the other just don't deviate don't swerve you know the basics you were grounded in the basics and he says two things he says you know because remember who taught it to you or who taught it to him well most recently Paul taught it to her but his younger years his mom taught it to him and his grandmother devout Israelite parents taught their children to obey the commands of God I I I was I had never noticed this in Genesis Chapter 18 where you had this great Declaration of God concerning Abraham Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him we quote that all the time I I never really paid attention to what it goes on to say in the 19th verse will be blessed in him for I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord give heed to your father's instruction and don't neglect your mother's teaching the Shema these words are to be upon your heart she teach them to your children when you walk along the road when you lie down when you get up who can quantify the benefit of a Christian home and not bring it who will ever quantify the benefits of a granny that prayed for us and a mom that wasn't prepared to take our stupid nonsense when we said no we're not going there we don't like that none of our friends go there and she said sit down and be quiet you're going I mean I got thrown out of Sunday school for people who are doing bad things who were non-Christian boys because they knew that my father would send me back the next week but if they threw out the non-Christian boys they may never come back so I was like a skateboard for the whole operation and and of course I would never have been one of the boys doing anything that would get you thrown out yeah when all thy mercies oh my God my Rising Soul surveys transported with the view I'm lost in Wonder Love and praise unnumbered Comforts to my soul thy Tender Care bestowed before my infant heart conceived from whom those Comforts flowed when in the slippery Paths of Youth with heedless steps I ran thy hand unseen conveyed me safe and brought me up to man some of you have the same testimony don't you and you now are in the same position as myself and you're saying to yourself I think my future is in psalm 71. and verses 17 and 18. oh God from my youth you have taught me and I still Proclaim your wondrous Deeds so even to old age and gray hairs oh God do not forsake me until I Proclaim your might to another generation your power to those who are to come you've got a whole bunch of people in America but they don't like the winters in Ohio so they go and they fossilize down in Florida The Floridian fossils I call them they don't like it when I say that but and I shouldn't say it but I said it anyway but I I need those people I don't want them to go down there and play golf for the rest of their lives there's an entire Ohio to reach for the gospel you can go for a wee well but you must come back somebody told you the scriptures now you have a responsibility to tell someone else that's what he's saying you know those who taught you and you know also the Scriptures it refers to them as the sacred writings from childhood you've been acquainted with this which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ the Bible is a book that is there so that people might know that salvation Belongs to the Lord the Bible tells doesn't tell us everything about everything you can't go in a chapter in you know in the Old Testament and find out affect your Wi-Fi you can't go in the Bible and find out the difference the distance from Keswick to Cairo but everything that you need for life and for godliness is contained there the Westminster Confession number one point seven not all things in scripture are equally plain in themselves or equally clear to all yet those things which are necessary to be known believed and observed for salvation are so clearly stated and explained in one place or another in Scripture that not only they educated but also the uneducated May gain a sufficient understanding of them by a proper use of the ordinary means the ordinary means being sitting under the instruction of the scriptures and reading the scriptures for ourselves well in verse 16 a verse that is often preached on its own which will not be done now as we come to the end uh clearly Paul is not informing Timothy of the inerrancy of the Bible what is actually going on to do as we'll see tomorrow God willing is to preach the Bible and so before he gives him his marching orders he reminds him of what he actually knows that this has been breathed out by God it wasn't an existing um source of material into which God breathed but rather in this strange Duality or dual authorship God breathed concurrence in theological terms which we understand for example in the doctrine of Providence some of which we consider last evening so Joseph and his brothers he says to them you meant it for evil they were a hundred percent involved in the animosity but God intended it for good he was a hundred percent involved in putting Joseph in the place it wasn't a 50 50 split and it isn't a 50 50 split in the Bible God is a hundred percent engaged in breathing out his word and the writers of scripture are a hundred percent involved as they put pen to paper let me say just a couple of things because our time is gone the authority of scripture the authority of scripture is the way that people come to an understanding of scripture when scripture is not offered to people as here's a few ideas see what you think you can do with this but rather that it is offered as the pastor is standing underneath the scriptures and is saying let's look together and see what God is saying to us let's let's allow the Bible to preach to us and only by scripture itself is the authority of scripture ever understood as the Holy Spirit persuades us in a mysterious ways that this is really the word of God and without the ministry of the Holy Spirit eyes that are blinded by sin can never see it ears that are deafened to the truth will never hear it darkened Hearts will never respond to it but when we hear God speaking in his word then we are persuaded in a way that produces such a Divine Invasion crisis that the other voices that have filled our heads and thoughts and lips somehow are subdued we could all tell stories of that couldn't we I certainly could the Divine voice silences our voice and convinces us that the Bible's claims are true wow look at what he says it's profitable for all these things teaching so that you might know the right way reproof so that it can tell us when we've gone the wrong way correction to get us right back on track and training to keep us on track and why so that the man of God particularly here Timothy in his role in pastoral Ministry but so that the man of God the woman of God the people of God may be completely equipped for every good work vitally important that Timothy continues in this way you remember the coronation don't you I don't I was too we but I was alive 70 years ago we present you we present you with this book the most valuable thing this world affords here your majesty is wisdom this is the Royal law these are the Lively Oracles of God I know they are or they're not Timothy continue brief prayer actually I'm going to use Calvin's prayer which he often used after preaching we call upon you our good God and Father beseeching you since all the fullness of wisdom and light is found in you in your mercy to Enlighten Us by the holy spirit in the true understanding of the word teach us by Your Word to place our trust in you and to serve and honor you as we aren't so that we may glorify your holy name in all our living and edify our neighbors by our good example maybe render To You O God the love and obedience which children are to their parents since it has pleased you graciously to receive us in Christ as your children in Christ's name amen this message was brought to you from Truth For Life where the learning Is For Living to learn more about Truth For Life with Aleister Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 179,390

Keywords: churchleadership, leadership, ministry, pastoralministry

Id: tWy_ZZcYRUo

Length: 51min 44sec (3104 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023