It's a funny thing as you travel
and speak in different places, you begin to learn very quickly that the
least important someone is, the longer the introduction is required.
You have no idea who I am but he just told you a lot of stuff. And the most important
people in world require very little introduction. I mean,
think about it. You go to England, "Ladies and gentlemen,
the queen of England." Nothing else is required.
The State of the Union Address, you hear, "Ladies and gentlemen,
the president of the United States." So that when you hear a big, long
introduction you realize, "Okay, nobody knows who this guys is,
and he is really not that important." What is important is that we're here
to look at God's word together. And we are working through 2 Timothy.
And I just want to confess as we begin, Julius mentioned that I have five
daughters. And I have to confess to you, parenting is the hardest thing I've ever
had to do. And if you are a parent, you have children all the way from 27
years of age to 15 years of age, we have an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old at home,
and as you navigate through all the stages of life and you're working through, in my
house, with girls, you know, I've lived most of my life with six women,
as you're working through all the issues in each of their lives,
different perspectives, the ups and downs, and the roller coasters, really,
what you want more than anything is to see your children come to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. To fight the good fight of faith, to run the race with endurance,
and to cross the finish line, and to receive the crown of righteousness
that awaits all those who have loved the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know that's my desire for my children, that's your desire for your children as
well. Well, Paul is Timothy's father in the faith, and that is Paul's desire
for Timothy. Paul wants to see this young man whom he had something to do with his
coming to faith in Jesus Christ. He wants to see him,
fight the good fight of faith, he wants to see him run the race with
endurance, he wants to see him receive the crown of righteousness that is there
for all at the revelation of Jesus Christ, and who remain faithful to that day.
This is the impetus of 2 Timothy. This is what's going on.
There's a three-beat rhythm throughout 2 Timothy.
Timothy, preach the word; Timothy, endure suffering;
Timothy, don't be ashamed. And you hear that threefold beat
throughout 2 Timothy. Preach the word, don't be ashamed, endure suffering,
preach the word, don't be ashamed, endure suffering. There's a problem.
As Paul is at the end of his life and he has fought the good fight and he has
finished the race and now he awaits to receive the crown, he wants to make sure
that Timothy endures likewise. But the problem is in chapter 2, verse 20.
There is opposition to Timothy and to his perseverance. And in chapter 2,
verse 20, as Steven showed us, in God's house in the church,
there are two kinds of vessels. Two kinds of workers, an approved worker
and an unapproved worker, a vessel for honorable use and a vessel
for dishonorable use. And so, part of Paul's encouragement
and exhortation to Timothy, to persevere in the faith is that he would
remain an approved worker. That he would remain an honorable vessel
that is useable to God and that he would not fall prey to becoming a dishonorable
vessel that is not useable to God. And so, Paul in verse 21 of chapter 2,
urges Timothy to cleanse himself from what is dishonorable. That he maybe a vessel
for honorable use, set apart his worthy, useful to the master of the house,
ready for every good work. So, the question for us to consider is,
how is Timothy to cleanse himself from what is dishonorable? That he may be such
a vessel. And we see this in the remainder of Chapter 2, in verse 22, he tells them,
"Flee youthful passions," or, "Flee immaturity." And then he also tells them
to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, and he unpacks that as
Steven did for us earlier this morning. But in our text there is another
exhortation by which Timothy is to cleanse himself from what is dishonorable so that
he maybe a useable vessel for God, an approved worker. And the exhortation
in chapter 3 is, "Avoid such people." So, if Timothy is going to cleanse himself
from what is dishonorable, he needs to, negatively speaking, flee
youthful passions, positively speaking, he needs to pursue righteousness,
and faith, love, and patience, but he also needs to avoid certain people.
The question that we have to answer is, what people? Who are we to avoid if we're
to be useable to God? And what does that mean?
What does it look like when we avoid such people? Can you feel the tension
between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3? Can you feel the reality? We're to pursue
our opponents in righteousness, faith, love, and peace, as laid out in chapter 2?
And we're also to avoid such people in chapter 3. And there's a tension here
for us because we have to be discerning to try to understand which is which,
who is what? How do we navigate this tension of pastoral care where we must
distinguish between those who are acting like children and those who are basically
being fools? We have to distinguish between those who are immature but are
genuine Christians and those who seem hard-hearted, unrepentant, recalcitrant,
and opposing to the truth. I think the key is, and I mentioned this
last night in our panel, the key is in chapter 2, verse 25
and chapter 3, verse 5. Look there with me very quickly.
In chapter 2, verse 25, "Paul is talking about going after our
opponents, correcting his opponents with gentleness so that God may perhaps
grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth." So,
there are opponents that seem to have hope for repentance.
They seem to have a desire for the truth and we deal with them with gentleness
in such a way that God may grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of
the truth. But in chapter 3, in verse 5, Paul tells us that there is a reality
that is different. These are people having the appearance of godliness but denying
its power, "Avoid such people." Look at verse 7," Always learning and
never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth." That's the key.
Some are able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth through repentance,
granted by God's grace, and there are others who will never be
able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth because of the hardness of their
heart. Still it's hard to discern, isn't it? It's hard to discern,
which is which? But this is a ministry to which we have been called his pastors.
And I take 2 Timothy to be primarily an application to Timothy himself,
secondarily to pastors in general, and then thirdly to all of
us who are Christians and in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so,
pastors, I will speak to you primarily and secondarily to all the rest of us who
are in the church to try to consider how do we distinguish. But as far as pastors
are concern, our role is to shepherd the flock of God among us, which includes
feeding, it includes caring, it's include correcting,
and includes protecting the flock of God among us. And as those of us who are
Christians, we have to be discerning. So, as we think about this tension and the
reality and we get to Chapter 3 of avoiding such people, let me
just encourage us, first of all, to pray, pray for ourselves, pray for wisdom,
pray for thick skins and soft hearts so that when people come at us we have a
thick skin, and that when we go at them we have soft hearts. Let's pray for our
opponents, let's pray for our church and for the protection of the church, and let
us seek counsel of you pastors, seek counsel from other elders.
Seek counsel from other wise counselors, perhaps other pastors that you trust,
and then meet with your opponents. Find the time to meet with those who are
in opposition to you that you may encourage them,
that you may disciple them, that you may even rebuke them if the
moment requires the kind of rebuke. And always maintain the dignity of your
opponents. But if there is no evidence of repentance, if all that there is
recalcitrance, and hardness of heart, opposition to the truth,
Paul tells Timothy, "Avoid such people." Let's look together in 2 Timothy 3:1-9, and let me read that for us. And as I read it, let's stand
together in honor of the reading of God's holy word. 2 Timothy 3:1-9, this is God's word for us at this
moment. "But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times
of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant,
abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless,
unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal,
not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of godliness
but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into
households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by
various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the
truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so, these men also oppose
the truth. Men corrupt in mind and disqualified in regarding to the faith.
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that
of those two men." Let's ask for God's help. Our Father in Heaven,
we ask now that you would show us your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
from the pages of Scripture by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we ask.
Amen. You may be seated. So, when the church,
verse 20 of Chapter 2, in the church, there are honorable
vessels, that's approved workers, useful to the master and dishonorable
vessels, unapproved workers, unusable to the master.
And Paul has been exhorting Timothy to be a useful vessel, to remain a useful
vessel, an approved worker, and he's asking him to cleanse himself.
And, of course, one of the dangers as I've been saying is that if we're immature,
we place people in this category of avoiding people too quickly.
We just want to dismiss people immediately, and it requires
patience, it requires correcting with patience as we see in chapter 2.
But it's also important to understand, because we have this tension don't we?
In our own hearts and we have this tension in our churches, we may even have these
tensions in the pastoral staff that there may be some even among the elder board,
there are some elders who just want to, well, let's not move too quickly,
let's just be more patient and they never deal with issues that need to be dealt
with. And then you have some people that they just want to deal with this very
quickly. The first time there's any kind of sniff of error or
any kind of misunderstanding of the gospel, they just want to cut
someone off. And so, this is the tension that we have
to navigate as we work through here. But understand that there does come a
time to separate from hard-hearted, recalcitrant, unrepentant,
hypocrites. The question is, how do we discern the difference
between those that we are to pursue in righteousness, faith, love,
and patience, and those that we're to avoid? And this is what Paul is
trying to help us to understand. Look there in verses 1 through 4 of
chapter 3. Paul helps us to see that you will know them by their character or
actually by their lack of character. Verses 1 through 4, "But understand this,"
notice that this is a command, understand this or know this,
you might have in your translation. In other words, it's a command for Timothy
to be discerning. It's a command for him to be engaged in understanding the
difference in character of people. "Understand this, that in the last days
there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control,
not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." I mean, we see people like this
all the time, don't we? And the first tendency for us in the
church is to look at this and then to look outside the church and to say, "Yeah,
this world is going to hell in a handbasket very quickly."
But it's important to know the context here is verse 20 of chapter 2,
Paul is talking about the vessels in the house of God. These are people in the
church; these are people that are mixed in within the congregation. Now,
you don't need to understand the original languages to feel the weight of this
language of what they're actually doing. These people are just like the world.
They're in the church but they are just like the world. In 1 Timothy, Chapter
3, Paul emphasizes godly character as a requirement for elders.
You know what's remarkable about the qualifications of elders?
Is that there's nothing remarkable about the qualifications for elders.
Except for the ability to teach that's how all Christian should be.
That's how all of us should live, is above reproach. Here Paul commands Timothy
to know this kind of people, and to know that they are in the church
so that he would be discerning. This is one of the sad realities
of pastoral ministries. One of the sad realities of pastoral ministry is that
there are people that come in, they call themselves Christians,
they might even believe themselves to be Christians but they are just like the
world. There's a man who started visiting our church some time ago,
he was a pastor's kid, in fact, I even met his father who
is a pastor still. And as he began talking to people, there was just something odd
about him. And I personally met with him and others of our elders meet with him.
And there was just a discomfort, the way he was quoting Scripture and
sometimes misquoting Scripture. He appeared to have knowledge of the Bible
and some Scripture verses, but there were some things he was just
leaving out. And as we got to know him, he began to seem actually predatorial.
Particularly, he seemed predatorial toward the women in the church, he
seemed to be wanting to get to know them and when we rebuked him, he was very
upset. And eventually, he ended up leaving the church, even though he was through the
membership process and in our membership process where we have a class and we have
an elders interview and it was in that interview that some of these issues began
to be raised and we began to wonder, "Where's this guy really coming from?" And
so, as we slowed down the membership process and eventually halted it because
of our concerns and our concerns proved to be true. I mean, this man was just
coming to church because he wanted to get to know women. And sadly,
in the church, there will be people like that, there will be people that are
trying to come in like that, there will people that are already in like
that. Some of them will be members of the church, some of them will actually
be teachers or small group leaders. Perhaps, I think, like in 1 Timothy,
perhaps even elders, people with teaching responsibilities
in the church. Paul wants us to know faithful Christians by their character.
These people appear to be Godly, verse 5, but in fact, they are not.
Another reason why I take this to be a warning about people in the church,
look at verse 5. "They have the appearance of godliness but deny its power.
Avoid such people." You know, people can appear godly in a number of
ways, right? Some people appear godly, but, in fact, what they're doing is
they're pursuing legalism, right? Unless you fill in the blank,
you cannot be saved. That's was happening in Acts 15, Acts 14,
Acts 15, they were saying, "Unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved."
And we look at that and we think how ridiculous that is. But in our own
churches, there is a temptation to say, "Unless you, fill in the blank, you cannot
be saved." Now, we don't say you cannot be saved, but we have a tendency to look
down on people. Unless you, fill in the blank, you do it for yourself.
Unless you vote republican, you can't really be saved. Unless you vote
democratic, you really can't be saved. Unless you homeschool your children,
unless you private educate your children, unless you public educate your children so
that your children could be missionaries, I mean, we could go at this all day,
can't we? Look, let's confess. We are all recovering legalists.
And that...it's a temptation. It's a temptation for us.
Legalism imposes our standard on everyone else. And then we judge
everyone else based upon that standard and they never quite measure up.
And the irony about legalism is that it seems to be based on an arrogant
ignorance. Now, think about those two words together, arrogant ignorance.
It's an arrogant ignorance of how to understand the Bible.
Maybe it's an ignorance of the relationship between how to understand the
Old Testament and the New Testament, and how they work together,
or an ignorance as to how to apply basic principles of interpreting the Bible.
Legalists are ignorant about these things but they're really confident about it.
And then you have some people that kind of, maybe they were there and they
tend to react against the legalism and they preach license. And boy,
they appear godly because they're so smart and they're so intelligent,
and while with the legalist it's probably an arrogant ignorance, you know,
with the libertine, is this arrogant kind of knowledge, just Paul says, "Knowledge
puffs up." In 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 and he's dealing exactly with this kind of
issue here, a debate between legalism and license, so to speak. The arrogance
of the libertine is they believe that only they know how to put the
Bible together and they look down on the ignorance of the poor legalists.
And both groups appear really, really godly. Paul tells the Colossians in
Colossians 2 that legalism may have an appearance of godliness,
but there is no power in legalism for godliness. In fact,
there is no power in license for godliness. And this is exactly what
Paul continues to say. While the young and immature believer,
both the legalist and the libertine appear godly, they deny the true power
of godliness. Again, verse 5, "Having the appearance of godliness but
denying its power." The true power of godliness, gospel-rooted, grace-fueled
spirit-empowered obedience. And they just deny that.
Paul wants us to beware of these folks. And so, Paul reminds us,
"You will know them by their character or lack of character." But he also warns us,
"You will know them by their methods." Look at verse 6, "You will know them by
their methods." Verse 6, "For among them are those who creep into
households and capture weak women." In other words, they have the kind
of underhanded tricks and the underhanded activity,
they take advantage of the weak in the church, they're like hunters,
hunting after prey, looking for the weak ones within the congregation, and they set
their gaze on the weak ones in the congregation and they go after them.
This is what Paul wants us to understand. They may even have a platform in the
church, whether it's a Sunday school class or a small group, or maybe, again,
in the elder board. I remember when I was serving on staff for the church.
Not where I am now, a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
I was a new Christian, I was 19, you know, I was about 20, 21 and I'd come
to faith in Christ at 17, so, there's a lot I didn't know. But there was
just some activity that seemed kind of odd in a Sunday school class.
And one Sunday, I noticed that this woman who had injured her ankle, who was on
crutches, the very next week I encountered her in the hallway and she wasn't wearing
crutches but she was limping and wincing in pain. And I thought, "Are you better?
What happened?" And she says, "I'm healed." "How did you get healed? What
happened?" And she said, "I'm just believing only positive thoughts, I'm not
going to claim anything negative." And so, she just threw the crutches away and
hopefully she didn't damage her ankle any further. But as I began to research
this, this was a Sunday school teacher, a couple who was in the Sunday school
class, who actually had come directly from Kenneth Hagin's church. I mean, they even
called him "Daddy Hagin" and they were propagating this word movement
kind of theology within this small world
church in this town. You'll know these people by their methods,
they may have a platform, they may distribute resources,
whether it's a book or sermons. Hopefully, if they've gave you a cassette
tape, you know, I'm not going there, right? If they gave you a VHS tape,
don't go there. But they distribute resources, don't they?
They distribute resources, they try to win people over, they may
even invite you to an event or invite you to their home. The man that I had
mentioned earlier that had come into our church that was predatorial, he was
visiting our church and he actually printed up business cards. He printed up
business cards and we found that he was distributing these business cards to our
members, as many members as he could, inviting people to come over to his
apartment for bible study. If these issues are not addressed quickly,
false teaching and false influence, it's like a cancer. Paul says in chapter 2,
verse 17, he said, "It's like the spread of gangrene, it's slow but it's deadly."
We need to know their character, know their methods. But Paul also says,
"We need to know their motives." Again, verse 6, "They're burdened with
sins, and led astray by various passions." In other words, they're driven by their
own selfish, sinful desires, by their own sinful passions of their
flesh. Sometimes its money, sometimes its power,
sometimes its control, sometimes it's having a status within the
church. Sometimes they're just controlling people by being right and then being
wrong. Sometimes it's actually seduction and sexual immorality.
But there's a motivation, there's a sinful passion,
there's a sinful desire that moves these people. Like I'd mentioned, this man
that had been coming to our church, he wanted to get married,
he had some kind of agenda. He just wanted to meet as many women
and then choose a bride for himself. Ultimately, you will know these people by
their opposition to the truth, verse 7. Look at verse 7, "They're always learning
and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth." Verse 8, "Just as Jannes
and Jambres opposed Moses," these are what we now understand to be the
priests that opposed Moses in Pharaoh's court, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed
Moses, so, these men also oppose the truth." Notice how he describes them,
"These are men corrupted in mind and disqualified, regarding the faith."
They're not only disqualified regarding, say, an office in the church
like elder, or even deacon, they're actually disqualified in the faith.
It's interesting how these people appear to know a lot about God,
they appear to know a lot about Scripture, but they never actually
arrive at the truth. Have you ever met anyone like that?
They can quote a lot of Scripture but it's just kind of off by just a few degrees.
They can talk about theology and some of it you're tracking but then there are
a few things they say, they're just slightly off. And sometimes what
happens is that slightly off, as they continue pursuing that track,
ends up veering off quite a wide margin. But they appear to know a lot about God,
appear to know a lot about Scripture, appear to know a lot about theology,
but they never arrive the truth. They actually oppose the truth.
This man that I have been telling you about, we finally figured out where
his foundation was. He is what we would call a red-letter Christian.
He is someone who believed only in the words of Jesus and he rejected the
words of Paul or any other words. And we began to realize kind of what was
going on when he was saying things and they weren't quite right and then he just
finally came right out and said, "Well I just listen to Jesus, I don't need to
listen anybody else." He was a modern-day Marcionite. To the young and immature,
this person sounded smart, quoting, and even misquoting Scripture.
One of our members met with him and sought to disciple him, but there was never any
traction. There was never any root that the word took in him, he was arrogant,
he was proud, he was a lover of himself, and he didn't really care what anyone
wanted to tell him, he just had an agenda and he was going to pursue his own agenda.
So, he was unmoved, he was recalcitrant, and he was arrogant. You know, it's funny,
I don't know what it is about our church but we attract some of these people.
And there's something interesting that happens, I suspect you might attract
some of these people as well. This is California after all. And I'm
just kidding because I'm from Austin, and that's the other California.
But one of the things that I've discovered is as you preach faithfully and biblically
and expose the word of God, it attracts both those who love the word,
and those who think they love the word, and those who think that only this church
has the truth and those people eventually will turn on you. I remember one night,
I was about to preach on a Sunday evening, and it was the same day that a pastor
in California was shot and killed in the pulpit while he was preaching an early
service. And so, as you can imagine there were tensions in the church. And that
evening, as I was about to preach, there was a group of about eight
people that came to our church. And they came to the church holding
up these white crosses, these white, wooden, dowel crosses,
and they came in and our ushers tried to greet them and say, you know, "Welcome,
who are you? What's your name?" They didn't budge, they didn't tell
anybody anything, they just came, sat in the second row. And as you can imagine,
there was a little bit of a panic. My wife, who happened to be singing,
you know, she's wondering am I going to have a struggle here? You know, "Is
my husband safe?" And thankfully, our men knew what to do immediately.
But we came to discover that this was a group, they called themselves, you know,
something about exposing false teaching. And they were attracted by faithful
biblical preaching, but these were people that were going to a certain extreme,
they were visiting church, after church, after church, and they were casting
judgment on church, and they were trying to expose false teaching, they would say.
But, in fact, they were opposed to the truth. They had their own version
of the truth. Paul wants us to know these people, he wants us to be aware
of them. Eventually, Paul says, "The truth will come out,
they will be exposed." Look at verse 9. "But they will not get very far for their
folly," there's a foolishness, "their folly will be plain to all as
was those of those two men, Jannes and Jambres."
These people who continue in their ways, the truth will eventually come out.
It's one of the things that I've come to understand is, as we preach faithfully
and as we have thick skin and soft hearts, and as people attack us and criticize us,
I've learned that eventually, if we entrust ourselves to the just judge,
the truth will come out. And even if it doesn't come
out in this life, it will come out at final judgment,
all truth will be exposed. But for now, Paul commands Timothy to avoid such
people. Notice, avoid such people doesn't mean simply ignore them.
Avoiding such people doesn't mean treat them poorly. Avoiding such people does not
mean, pastors, use your pulpit as a bully pulpit and attack them from the pulpit.
Avoiding such people does not mean, send them to the church down the road
so they can have to deal with them. I take "avoid such people" to be another
way of speaking about church discipline. Now, why might I say that?
I say that because Paul is talking about dishonorable vessels in the church,
in God's house in verse 20 of chapter 2. I say that because Paul never tells the
church to avoid unbelieving sinners. In 1 Corinthians 5 he says, "I wrote
to you my letter, not to associate with the sexual immoral people,
I did not at all mean the sexually immoral of this world, but the so-called brothers
in the church." And he actually says, "Purge the evil from your midst."
Purge the evil person from your midst. The context of that is 1 Corinthians 5:
1-5, where Paul talks about the man who has committed sexual immorality,
having relations with his stepmother, and they're putting up with it,
they're letting it go, they're not addressing it. And Paul says,
"From my part, I have already judged this person and I have delivered him over to
Satan." I think that's what's going on here. Primarily because in the context
surrounding our passage, there is a sense of separating oneself from those
in God's house, who will come under God's judgment. Now, Kevin,
yesterday talked about chapter 2, verses 11 and 13, and I agree with Kevin.
I take that to be a negative stipulation. "If we have died with him,
we will also live with him," positive, "If we endure, we will also reign
with him," positive, "If we deny him, he will also deny us," negative,
"If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny
himself," negative. I think God will be faithful to all his promises,
and part of that in God being faithful to the covenant, it's not just blessing
his people but also cursing and judging those who do not keep covenant. Also,
if you look down chapter 2, verses 16-19, there also is the context of
judgment. And Paul uses the kind of language where he's talking
about the rebellion of Korah, verse 19. "But God's firm foundation
stands bearing the seal, 'The Lord knows who are
his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.'"
That's a citation from Numbers chapter 16, or at least paraphrase or an
allusion, and the idea of Numbers 16 is after Korah rebelled against Moses,
God directed Moses to separate himself and to separate Israel from Korah and his
company because God was about to rain judgment on Korah and his company.
And the ground opens up and swallows up Korah and his company.
And Moses in Israel are to separate themselves from this. I think our text,
"Avoid such people" is the clear application of verse 19 of chapter
2, the idea of separating from those whom God will judge, avoid such people.
Deliver them over to Satan. Purge the evil person from among you.
In judgment, God has always separated the dishonorable and the unrighteous from His
presence, the presence where He lives in community with his people.
He created Adam and Eve to dwell in His presence, God and man
fellowshipping together, living in Holy Communion.
And when Adam and Eve rebelled, what did God do? He separated
Adam and Eve, so to speak, and separated Himself and exiled Adam and Eve from the
place of His presence. For blessing and for joy.
And they were outside the presence of God and received the curses.
But God wasn't done, was He? And so, He gave a promise that a child would be
born and through the seed of the woman, salvation would come.
And God's people would be brought back to Him. But Israel failed in fulfilling
that promise. So, Israel, too, was exiled. God separated Himself from the presence
of the unrighteous Israelites. But the prophets looked forward to a time
where there will be one who would come that would reunite God's people and call
all God's people back to Himself. And Mathew begins his gospel with the
genealogy that tells us, "Jesus is the answer to the exile."
Jesus is the son of Abraham, Jesus is the son of David,
Jesus is the answer to the exile. So, the genealogy goes from Abraham to David,
from David to the deportation, and from the deportation to Jesus. So,
how did Jesus bring his people back to himself? Jesus brought us back to
himself by being exiled himself. Paul tells the Corinthians in 2
Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 21, "For our sake, God,
made him Jesus to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." And so,
on the cross Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And he cried that so we would never have to. And so, in Christ,
God separates Himself from sin, forsaking the son in his humanity as he takes sin
upon himself. And he unites us in fellowship with the Father in order to
bring us to the place of God's presence. You see, we are Chapter 3, verses 1
through 9, aren't we? We are the ones that are lovers of self, haters of parents,
we are the ones that are boastful and arrogant and it is God in Christ who has
rescued us. Who lovingly and patiently pursued us to bring us to Himself.
And in His son, He brings us to Himself that we would be in the presence of God
for all eternity. That's why the promise of the Spirit is a down payment.
The promise of God dwelling in us by the Spirit is a down payment because
the promise, the mother of all promises is that we will dwell with God.
And the Holy Spirit with us is God present with us as a taste of the future when we
will be with God and He will be with us and we will dwell with Him.
The only reason that we can pursue righteousness is because Jesus is our
righteousness. If you're here and you're not a Christian, let me just help you
understand that there is a day of judgment coming. And in that day of
judgment, Jesus will come and he will separate the sheep from the goats,
he will separate the righteous from the unrighteous.
And the judgment will be based upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ and what you
did with him. So turn away from your sin, quit trusting in yourself,
and turn to Christ and trust in Christ alone for your righteousness.
Pursue the righteousness that is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you're here, and 3:1-9 describes you but you call yourself a
Christian and you look there and the Holy Spirit is convicting you, "Wow,
you know what? That sounds a lot like me." To you I would appeal, repent.
Confess your sin, turn away. Perhaps you many to go to someone and
confess your sin. Confess your treatment of them, confess your opposition perhaps
to the pastors or the elders of the church or to leadership or a Sunday school
teacher. Perhaps you need to confess your sin against another brother or sister in
Christ because you have seen that you are more like this, more like the world and
less like heaven. The good news is that through Christ we receive the forgiveness
of God. We are cleansed from all unrighteousness. And so, the reason
that we can pursue cleansing, the reason that Paul can say, "Timothy, cleanse
yourself from what is dishonorable," is because we have been cleansed by the
blood of Jesus Christ and he has washed all our sin away. And we keep going to
that fountain of the blood of Jesus Christ, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because our Father in
heaven, through his Son Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit is
merciful. He is slow to anger, He is abounding in mercy and grace,
praise be to this God. This is our God. In God's house, in His house,
there are vessels for honorable use and vessels for dishonorable use. Paul has
been distinguishing between these two vessels. In chapter 1:15-18,
Paul said, "All who are in Asia, including Phygelus and Hermogenes
abandoned me but Onesiphorus didn't." In chapter 2:14-19,
Hymenaeus and Philetus, they got into false teaching, they pursued immaturity,
but Timothy is to pursue maturity, he's to flee immaturity and he's to pursue
righteousness, and faith, and love, and patience. In chapter 4, verses 10 and
11, Demas, in love with this world, deserted Paul but Luke alone was with Paul. In
chapter 4:17-18, all who deserted Paul at his first defense, Paul
brings to light, but Jesus stood with him. You understand what Paul's been doing?
There are two kinds of vessels in God's house. Honorable vessels,
useable to God. Dishonorable vessels, not useable to God. Paul urges Timothy to
be a useful vessel, a useful servant, an approved servant, in God's house by
separating himself from dishonorable ways, from false teaching,
trying to win over his opponents to repentance and a knowledge of the truth
by gentleness, first and foremost. May God grant us the grace to grow up in
Christ, leaving immature ways behind. May God grant us the grace to deal gently
with our opponents that God may grant them repentance. May God grant us the
grace to discern when it is time to continue pursuing and when it becomes
time to avoid such people because the time will come. You see, there are only two
outcomes for these vessels in God's house. There is judgment for the unrighteous,
unfaithful, dishonorable, recalcitrant, unusable vessels. And there is a good
reward for the righteous, faithful, honorable, useable vessels. Let me
just close with a word to pastors. Can I just leave us brother-pastors with
some words of encouragement and words of promises from 2 Timothy? My brother-
pastors, don't lose heart, be encouraged, listen to these promises from 2 Timothy.
"God, his given us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, and love,
and self-control," chapter 1, verse 7. "We can endure whatever suffering we're
called to for the gospel, by the power of God," chapter 1, verse 8. "We know whom we
have believed and are convinced that He is able to guard until that day, what has
been entrusted to us," chapter 1, verse 12. "And by the Holy Spirit we're able to
guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to us," chapter 1, verse 14.
"And we are to be strengthened, not in our own power, but in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus," chapter 2, verse 1. Aren't those glorious promises? Let me just
exhort all of us. Fight the good fight of faith. Run the race with endurance.
And you will receive the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the
righteous judge, will award on that day to all, to all who have loved His
appearance. Encourage one another with these promises. Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we are overwhelmed by your grace
and by your mercy. Father, we confess our weakness, we confess our lack of
discernment, we rest in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we cling to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we confess, Father,
there are days where we look more like chapter 3, verses 1 through 9
than like your Son Jesus Christ. Father, we confess our sin,
we confess our own rebellion. Root out rebellion from our hearts,
continue to mold us, and to change us, and to transform us from one degree of
glory to another into the image of Jesus Christ. And strengthen us by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would fight the fight of faith, that we would
run the race with endurance that is set before us. That we might receive the
crown of righteousness that awaits to all who are longing for the appearance of
Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
