Preach the Word

I invite you to turn with me to second Timothy into chapter four and we'll read the first eight verses to Timothy chapter four and verse one I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wandered off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing amen if you're like me you will have put your 2015 diary or calendar into operation I retired I retired 2014 just on set on Saturday there and I went up to my room I have 27 years of these up in my study all marked up with that the good the bad and the ugly and this beginning already to take on the implications of commitments that already have been made and you will have done the same or you're doing the same because a new year brings with it fresh opportunities new responsibilities the possibility of new challenges and when you think about it it is I think for us as a church a happy Providence that we find ourselves in this particular passage of Scripture on this first day of a new year because after all most of us are going to be confronted not so much by an amazing Vista that opens before us or a peculiar challenge that we have never yet encountered most of us are going to be faced on are already being faced with the inevitability of a return to the routine of life there's something in the human spirit that can face a new challenge that can deal with a new responsibility it is particularly daunting to deal with the same thing again so the carpenter returns to the same box of tools that he left before the holiday and the surgeon goes back to the same or our and the musician is going to play the same notes and the salesman returns to his territory and to the challenge of new figures and the teacher the teacher returns to the classroom how I admire teachers especially if you had pupils like me I never looked forward to returning to the classroom as a pupil and I certainly can imagine what it's like to return to it as a teacher I guess it is just a wonderful calling and yet I'm a teacher too and I have colleagues along with me and we've been charged with the responsibility of teaching here and if someone has observed the poopit draws the preacher the way this sea draws the Sailor and when you come to a new chapter in the year you come to a new chapter in your life you come to a new chapter in the church you are operating on the same basis as everybody else so what are we going to do now so what will we do next so what is the plan for 2015 and some people are orientated in such a way that unless you can come up with some remarkable answer to that they've concluded that you really don't have much of a clue what you're doing as recalling this week somebody asked me some years ago now when I was about 50 the gentleman said what do you want to be when you grow up I took that as a great encouragement and I said I want to be what I am now but hopefully better at it than I am now he wasn't really impressed without he was looking for a much better answer than that but I really don't have a better answer than that amongst all the Christmas gifts that I received one that has become a favorite immediately is it is a stone just a small rock you say well you must have had a pretty poor Christmas if this is your if this is your favorite well no I had a wonderful Christmas but but this this I like someone sent me a rock and on it just two words keep on and then underneath Martyn lloyd-jones so in other words they must have heard me quoting Lloyd Jones to keep on and so now they sent me this rock in other words a physician heal yourself or take your own medicine that's why I say it's a happy Providence that we're here because 2 Timothy 4 says to Timothy and all who are in the lineage of Timothy essentially this I want you to continue as he says in verse 14 to continue in what you have earned and have firmly believed he has already told Timothy that the Scriptures are divinely inspired that they're completely reliable that they're totally sufficient and at the end of chapter 3 he pointed out that they are the key to the competence and effectiveness of the man of God and the reason that this is of such importance is because Paul has already identified the fact that some in the Ephesian context have gone the way of deviation they've gone off track chapter 2 they have their teaching which is spurious and spreading like gangrene he's going to as he continues in chapter 4 identifies some who haven't gone the way so much of deviation as they've gone the way intrigued by innovation and so he says to Timothy I want you to make sure that you commit yourself to proclamation to Proclamation and I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus preach the word preach the word now the word there is an important imperative it's the word that would be used of a Herald who went out into the community proclaiming a message that he had been given and this is the responsibility that Timothy is about to take on and is the responsibility that is then entrusted to all who become under God's direction teachers and preachers of the gospel now let us summarize the opening two verses by noticing just two things first of all the solemnity of this charge and then the simplicity of this charge the solemnity of it I often say this but I do so purposefully that it used to be that notice boards of churches identified the fact that if you went in that building you would find somebody there who is competent to conduct the Solomon ization of marriage the Solomon ization of marriage if ever there was a time for putting that back on notice boards on churches it is probably now when we are confronted by the trivialization of marriage or the denigrate of marriage so solemnity is an important part of the way in which the Bible introduces us to all kinds of themes and not least of all to the responsibility of the preaching of God's Word if you look at this you will notice that there is nothing casual or inconsequential about this I charge you he says in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus in other words he says God the Father and God the Son are your witnesses Timothy you're going to exercise your ministry not hidden away from the gaze of God God knows you he made you the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and your king and your ministry I charge you to this ministry in the presence of Almighty God and his son the Lord Jesus Christ now let's just allow that to settle on our minds for a moment and let me illustrate it in this way as a young minister in Scotland I had the privilege from time to time of being part of or present at the induction of a minister what we call in America here the installation of a minister and the process of induction there is a fairly formalized and traditional one there would be at least two preachers one would give the charge to the congregation there by reminding the congregation of its responsibilities to and for its new pastor and then somebody usually a seasoned minister would give the charge to the incoming minister as he was about to take on the charge and responsibilities of pastoral ministry and I can remember by being struck by just how awesome and how daunting that was there was usually later on a celebration and food and some good humor but on the occasion of the induction itself there was nothing that could have been regarded as anything other than solemn and it wasn't unusual for these words from Richard Baxter or words like them to be quoted by the minister given a charge to the young man quotes it is a sad that so many of us preach our healers to sleep but it is sadder still if we have studied and preached ourselves to sleep and have talked so long against hardness of heart till our own hearts grow hardened under the noise of our own reproofs I can remember sitting in an occasion like that and saying how unbelievably daunting is this the far greater and more awesome prospect is not of having a congregation that doesn't listen to you but of having a heart that doesn't pay attention itself to the things that you're proclaiming so that the longer you go in teaching the Bible the worse you get and the harder your own heart becomes what would help you snap out of that the solemnity of this charge I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is the one who will judge the living and the dead those who are alive and those who are raised to life will face the judgment of God and the accountability that is represented in that is such that Paul himself recognizes it down in verse 8 he's anticipating the day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and so he says to Timothy listen Timothy if you want it if you want to deal with judgment which you must because we all will you see we will all face judgment you understand that don't you two Corinthians five that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive that which is done in our bodies that we will be judged in relationship to our works believers will not be judged in the same way as the rest of mankind believers do not face the judgment as cowards shrinking from it but rather in light of what Paul says here in verse eight to which we will come looking forward to the day when a crown will be given to us but nevertheless the Christian view of judgment makes it clear that history a goal that judgment protects the idea of God's goodness and of the triumph of God and of the punishing of all wrong and of the setting of justice to rights all of that and more is represented there but what Paul is driving home to Timothy and to all who follow in his line is this you shouldn't be worried about being accountable to me ie to the Apostle and you know shouldn't worry about being accountable to your congregation in Ephesus if you want something to be concerned about be concerned about this that God's your judge and he knows the motives of your hearts people may impugn your modes of stim a--they people may make all kinds of observations on the strength of what you do what you say where you go but the fact of the matter is your judgment is secure in God himself and it is that sense of accountability which drives home the solemnity of it that's why when the writer to the Hebrews is wrapping up his letter he says to the congregation under his care obey your leaders and submit to them because they're really nice people know obey your leaders and submit to them because they're really really gifted no obey your leaders and submit to them because obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account to whom to God to God I remember years ago going out to lunch with a member of the congregation who was not particularly pleased with what I was doing or how I was doing it and at one point in a restaurant that has now been knocked down mercifully in solin he said to me in a spirit of frustration listen he says listen I could stand behind a box and talk just as well as you and I realized in that moment he hasn't a clue he does not have a clue about the notion of the call of God to the preaching and teaching ministry and I never seen sir do you think that's what I do he said yes I said well actually no I'm entrusted with the responsibility to keep watch over your soul and your wife's soul and your son and your daughter Souls and I'm gonna give an account not to you but I'm gonna give an account to God that is solid he wouldn't say that today I'm not gonna tell you who it is he's a good friend he was a good friend then he's been a good friend all the way through but he finally woke up started reading his Bible makes all the difference now Morrie McShane whom I quoted last week understood this as well in fact as you as you trace the line ineffective pulpit ministry whether it lies that a long time at a short time you will find that those who exercised effective teaching of the Bible did so in light of the judgment and appearing of Jesus Marie McShane who died at 29 as we always rehearse wrote a wonderful poem which in turn became a hymn which begins when this passing world is done when has sunk yon glaring Sun when we stand with Christ on high looking or life's history then Lord shall I fully know not till then how much I owe and then one of the stanzas it begins and when I stand before the throne dressed in beauty not my own then Lord shall I fully know not so then how much I all I think you'd get something of the solemnity of this this Jesus who is the judge of the living and the dead it's going to appear in this kingdom will be consummated and so he says I'm sending this before you Timothy and I want you to understand the solemnity of what I'm saying and also secondly to understand the simplicity of what I'm saying what is he saying in a phrase preach the word there's actually a series of imperatives here preach be ready reprove rebuke exhort and in Chapter and in verse 5 another another group of four I think it is you can check yourselves but what are you bored of what is Timothy to do in Ephesus well he's to preach the word we often rehearse the story of the cure to the bishop don't we who sends a postcard dear Bishop I'm going to preach for the first time in my new church next Sunday what should I preach about and the bishop sends a postcard back that just says dear curate preach about God and preach about twenty minutes and it was it was advice well given and thoroughly heated by most of us most of us got the first part correct on the second part wrong preach the word well Timothy would be in no doubt now about what Paul meant he has spoken to him throughout his letter about the pattern of sound words that he's to hold to the good deposit that he is to guard the word of truth that he is to proclaim the sacred writings that he is known from his infancy all of that underpins the simplicity of this charge preached the word in other words Timothy I want you to teach the Old Testament Scriptures and I want you to teach and turn the things that you've learned from me and that you will learn from the other apostles you will notice that he's not charged with coming up with something if I had I was going to say the same thing I won't say that again it's amazing how many times I meet somebody in the course of a week and they'll say to me well by the way I've always wanted to ask you how do you come up with something all the time how do you come up with something even the phrase is a strange place I said I don't come up with something well you've got to come up with something I mean you've been there a long time well no I don't come up with something God has come down with something he has conveyed something that's why we have the Bible what a horrible Taurani to have to come up with something spending your whole wheat corn oh no I got 48 hours 24 hours 12 hours six hours to Tulsa whatever it is and where we go no no I'm glad that we began at the beginning all these years ago as a church and said well let's just try and study the Bible that way I'm accountable to the Scriptures and in some measure I'm accountable to you and we're accountable to one another underneath the scriptures because you know that if we finish verse two today we should be in verse three next Sunday because verse three follows first two but let's try and finish verse 2 he's not charged with coming up with something but rather declaring the message that God has spoken I know you're as intrigued as I am about where all my hymnody comes from I don't even know where it all comes from and every so often I find out him is in my head and then I go in search of it and I am amazed when it comes from I I had the experience just last evening as I was scribbling and and a phrase came into mind when I was thinking about this I don't come up with it it comes down to me and in essentially the line came while it is a message from God and then I went to I have a message from the Lord hallelujah and I thought well that's interesting I wonder why the guy put hallelujah in there I think is just the syntax you know so I have a message from the Lord hallelujah this message unto you I give it's recorded in his word hallelujah and the message is to look and live I've known that ever since forever so I went to look for where did it come from I found it came from a man called William Ogden who's brought born in Franklin County in Ohio in 1841 never met him in my life and in the Civil War he was part of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry because his finally moved to Indiana when he was a young man but in the course of that he exercised if you like a heraldic ministry amongst his friends and this is what he said I've got a message from the Lord and here's a message look and live taking that from the Old Testament picture of the serpent in the wilderness where in order to be freed from their condition they were instructed not to scrub themselves wash themselves fix themselves meditate themselves but to look and to live and he says and this is the message look and you will live it remains the message secular men said I never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life it's got to be far more elaborate than that it's got to involve me far more than that no it doesn't at all here is a message now Timothy this is what I want you to do he says I want you to go out and proclaim this message what God has spoken in the Apostles has been bequeathed to us in the Bible so we are to preach the word and nothing but the word and when are we to do it well he tells us when were to do it we're to do it ready in season and out of season be ready I think the notion of readiness I ready a ye ready is part of the Canadian Navy but I haven't checked it certainly the theme and the symbol of my soccer team from Glasgow unfortunately my team hasn't been ready for a number of years despite having on its crest that it is always ready could have fooled me the last time I saw them play it but anyway they're supposed to be ready and that's what he's saying here is standing by captain ready ready when you are though that's the whole thing so that so that you know the pastor doesn't need to be controlled into preaching he doesn't need to be controlled and lured and and and and no no he's just ready he's ready whether he feels like it whether it doesn't feel like it that's the whole point here in season and out of season Paul understood for himself there were seasons where it was more delightful other times but it was more daunting there'll be times when it was discouraging and what he used to do is to press the message home on all occasions deeming it convenient or inconvenient now let's just let's just reinforce this realize how how straightforward how simple this is and yet how unusual it is how unusual it is for a man to stay the course as a Bible teacher to just keep teaching the Bible what are you saying to him is this I want you to preach the word Timothy if the environment is marked by receptivity or of hostility you don't you're not just looking for the receptive opportunity so that you can go and preach you must preach the word whether it is receptive or hostile you must preach the Word of God when the prospect of it fills you with delight but also when it fills you with dread now let me just say a word to my fellow pastors who are within earshot of what I'm saying now don't let's kid ourselves there are seasons in our souls there are seasons in a congregation there are seasons in the framework of life that make it far more daunting than delightful to stick with the task I often say to my wife I should have become a train driver where do you come up with this I said well I'd like to be a train driver you know then I could sing Willie Nelson songs while I'm going you riding on the city of New Orleans and because all you do as far as I can tell I don't mean to demean train drivers but you're up there by yourself number one it's pretty good you shut the door and you're pretty well online I mean you can there's nothing that a lot of decisions you didn't start it or stop it and you don't have to listen to anybody and you don't have to talk to anybody and if you're thoroughly depressed you can just cry as you're going down the line no one will know as long as you stop at the station they've stopped on the station and started getting all over again but you can do that here you just got a preach preach though your heart is breaking preach when it is delightful when it is dreadful preach when your listeners are attuned to what you're saying and preach when your listeners chew now what you're saying preach when the crowds are growing preach when the congregation is dwindling preach why because it's God's Word and God's Word always accomplishes its purposes it's so simple it's not that Paul is giving a warrant here for some kind of brusqueness or rudeness well I'm just going to preach whether they want to hear it or not know what he's saying here is an appeal against laziness laziness because you will notice that as he said in verse 16 Scripture is profitable for teaching for reproof and for correction now he comes round to it again and he says and the elements in preaching the word as you're ready in an out of season will be to prove or to reprove helping people think properly about the Bible the doubtful are in need of solid arguments they're in need of reinforcements therefore you're going to have to speak apologetically and prove and reprove they're thinking correcting those who are thinking wrongly or who are living wrongly it's not easy to say these things in correction but correcting our own souls and exercising a Ministry of Correction and also a ministry of encouragement encouraging people as Paul does and as he begins first Thessalonians remember in the opening chapter of Thessalonians we're going to study it here as a church in our small groups he says I'm so encouraged because of your your faith that functions and your love that Labor's your hope that hangs on faith hope and love present in the Thessalonians X what an encouragement it must have been for them but it is such a task isn't it and the nature of the task to reprove rebuke to exhort as then to be dealt with in a manner that is marked by patience and by teaching wouldn't have been better if it just said with a wee bit of patience why does it have to be complete patience with complete patience how patient are you are you using the utmost patience in your teaching the NIV has with great patience and careful instruction Jim Boice now in heaven is the one who said to me years ago as a young man you will tend to overestimate what you can accomplish in a year and you will underestimate what you can accomplish in five years so be patient to be a teacher I think demands patience whether you're teaching tiny children or big children because not everyone gets it not everyone gets it are those same levels some people apparently never get it and then one day they get it like in my fair lady by George I think she's got it remember that great moment and in my fair lady is so much fun when she says the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain and that's the great dennou mom because up until that time she's all been like like into hiking all I want is a room somewhere and he's been teaching her remember he's so consumed with that Higgins Higgins gives her six marbles to put in her mouth and then quote poetry through the tri-oval song Wooster and then they says by George I think she's got it and some of your school teachers or university professors that's been your great joy in life that's somewhere along the line one of those characters that made it out of your class by the skin of their pence has met you in the thoroughfare and ER said oh I I finally got where you were on about and it may even have become a teacher themselves Paul says now Timothy if you think about this context in Ephesus it's daunting without any question at all I want you to make sure that your patient and I wanted you to make sure that you're operating as carefully as you are patiently in other words it demands an approach to the Bible that is demanding that if you if you want to come up with an approach to teaching the Bible that is like three illustrations two jokes and the odd practical idea you never need to study again in your life you just they're there they are bound everywhere there's books with all of that stuff and it can be like both sides now you know and leave them laughing when they go and if you care don't let them know don't give yourself away doesn't matter but now this is solid this is straightforward this is demanding sensible careful intelligent instruction well it's the first Sunday of the year and and here we are same old thing right I mean you're like are you kidding me beg we do it we're doing the same thing again yeah and Asgard Spurs me we'll be doing the same thing again why because it's a great idea no if you think about it this kind of didactic instruction is is like a dinosaur I mean do you know any place where anybody is able to speak for more than 20 minutes and hold anybody's attention it's certainly another State of the Union address it's not in your is not in your average class but every so often the sound of God appears across the horizon and people suddenly realize this must be God Himself who speaks and that's the whole point it is in the old days that the churches in Scotland they had that sign sir we would see Jesus I think actually it could equally be Sir we would hear Jesus we want to hear from Jesus Jesus is ultimately the preacher we preach his word so let me finish in this way first of all a word to our pastoral team of which I am apart it is a happy Providence that we've arrived at 2 Timothy chapter 4 on this first Sunday of the new year it is a word for our pastoral team to faithfully proclaim the Word of God in light of the judgment of God whatever the response of the people of God to proclaim the Word of God in light of the judgment of God whatever the response of the people of God that's for the pastoral team and a word for the congregation that we might prayerfully support our pastors as they preach the Word of God and as we receive it gladly as from God

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 7,124

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Keywords: Alistair Begg, Jesus Christ, Gospel, Leadership, Patience, Preaching, Ministry, Church Leadership

Id: E1_Mu1SepkA

Length: 33min 48sec (2028 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 05 2015