Sunday Sermon: Rightly Handling the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:14-19)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Well, good morning.

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Good morning. Please turn in your Bible if you will to 2 Timothy chapter 2 as we continue our series in 2

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Timothy. We appreciate you being here. We appreciate the guests that have visited as well. And as I have mentioned in previous weeks when we've hit this number over 90 and are even exceeding the number of chairs that we have, my encouragement to you would be to still attend.

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Don't think that just because we're filled up that you're thinking might be the next week. Well, you know what? I'm not going to go so maybe

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I can open the seat up for somebody else. We all want to be gathered together and celebrating in the

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Lord together, singing his praises, hearing the word preached, coming together to the Lord's table.

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This kind of became a second overflow room over here. You can't see from here, but some of the girls were gathered right there at the doorway so they could see the screen and we're pulling up lyrics on our phones and things like that.

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So this became a second overflow over here. And it's been wonderful even having this extra space over here that we can still be together and worship

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God. We might be separated by a wall, but we're all in the spirit together in this place. Some of you are aware that there were some men from this church, seven of us all together in fact, that went to what was called the young man's camp, which was up at Bear something

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Lake. I can't remember the Bear Creek, what? Bear Canyon Lake. There we go.

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That's where we went and spent the last few days. And so somebody asked me yesterday as we were packing up and heading back here, how many things happened this week at camp that are going to end up in your sermon on Sunday, Pastor Gabe.

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And the answer to you today is none, except to say that the last song we sang was when

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Josh and Dusty and I were sitting around a campfire and we're all humming this song going, what is that song? So we came up where Dusty came up with wanting to sing that song while we were at camp.

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How good it is to be fellowshipping together as the saints of God. We are in second

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Timothy chapter two. And as we have heard going through second Timothy, the apostle

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Paul is encouraging Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel, nor of me, his prisoner, but instead to share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, Jeremiah Burroughs, the famous Puritan said, it is not enough to receive the truth that we might be saved, but we must receive the love of the truth if we could ever be saved.

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And so let us rejoice in the truth together today as we hear God's word proclaimed in honor of the word of the king.

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Would you please stand? I am in second Timothy chapter two, beginning in verse 14, reading from the

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English standard version here, the word of the Lord. Remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth, but avoid irreverent babble for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene.

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Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have swerved from the truth saying that the resurrection has already happened.

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They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal.

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The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the

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Lord depart from iniquity. You may be seated as we pray.

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Heavenly father, I pray that as we have heard the truth proclaimed this morning and we will continue to exposit this word, exposing the meaning that the spirit intends through the apostle

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Paul to his servant, Timothy, and even to us today, that there is stirred within our hearts, a love for this truth, not merely to come here and hear the truth proclaimed, but to love it and to love it to such a degree that it is written upon our hearts applies to our lives.

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And we live it out. Even as we go from this place, I pray that you'd be with me this morning in the preaching of the word and be with all who are in attendance in the hearing of the word, that we may be sanctified by this truth, conformed more to the image of the sun, fleeing from the temptations of the world, the temptations of our own flesh and the schemes of Satan and drawn near to Christ rejoicing in all that you have given to us through him.

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It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. I have been preaching since I was 17 years old.

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I did my first sermon in September of 1997 at first Southern Baptist church in liberal

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Kansas. Now while that might sound impressive, wow, you've been preaching since you were 17.

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I had no business being in the pulpit at the age of 17. Every once in a while,

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I'll still run into somebody who says, you know, I was in such a church back in like 2003 or four when you were there and you preached.

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And part of me wants to go, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for that sermon that you heard that day.

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And I wish I could go back and do it again and do it faithfully to the word. Just because I had a good speaking voice and I had a knack for public speaking did not automatically mean that I was qualified to be in the pulpit and preaching.

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And it wasn't until years later when thankfully there were some faithful men of God that were listening to me preaching going, that sounds a little bit off and confronted me, pulling me aside just like Priscilla and Akilah did for Apollos and said there, you have a passion for the word.

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You have a love for Christ. I know that it's there, but there's some things you're not getting quite right. And those men who shepherded me and trained me up in a right understanding of the word and handling the word of truth in the proper way.

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And that's the instruction that Paul has for Timothy here. If I choose a title for my sermon, it would be rightly handling the word of truth.

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As Paul instructs Timothy to do in verse 15, do your best to present yourself to God.

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Not before man, not looking for approval and popularity, but you present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed.

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And he has no reason to be ashamed because he has rightly handled the word of truth.

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Now of course, Paul, the apostle is telling this to his protege, Timothy, a man who is a preacher whom he has sent to Ephesus to pastor the church there.

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But this is not an instruction unique to pastors for we all have a responsibility to understand the truth and to handle it rightly.

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Those of you who are parents who have children, to handle the truth rightly when you teach your kids, when it comes to sharing the gospel with a friend, knowing the truth and what the

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Bible instructs and how to guide someone else in this as well. And most especially when it comes to our own personal application, to know what the word says so that we may live it out rightly in the presence of God and to his glory.

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So let us consider how those things apply as we come into this scripture today, seeing also the warning that is given here, which really dominates this particular passage against false teaching so that we would not be led astray by those who would teach falsely.

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And then that false teaching spreads like gangrene. What a gross picture, but certainly seeing the way that bad teaching can corrupt even people who desire to worship

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God. And so as we look at this passage today, if you want to, if you want sort of an outline for this particular section, we see these things divided up into pairs uniquely enough.

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First of all, Paul gives two words to them. If you look at verse 14, remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words and so on.

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So first of all, we have two words to them. Secondly, we have two words to Timothy, and this is in verses 15 to 18.

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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. That's one word to Timothy. And then verse 16, but avoid a reverent babble.

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So two words to them, two words to Timothy. And then last of all, we have two words from the old

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Testament, and you probably picked up on that in verse 19, God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal.

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We have two old Testament references. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the

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Lord depart from iniquity. So you see how that's divided up here. So first of all, we have two things to them, two words to Timothy, two words from the old

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Testament. And as we consider that passage today, we consider also how we will live in light of the truth, rightly handling the word of truth.

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So let's come back to verse 14 where Paul says to Timothy, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

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Now, first of all, let's understand who them is or who they are. Remember that Paul had previously instructed

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Timothy to pass on what he has learned to other men. Look back at chapter two, verse two, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others.

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Also, Paul has taught Timothy, Timothy is to continue this pattern, taking those things that he has been taught in trusting them to other faithful men.

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Now, as I said to you early on, second Timothy is a true pastoral epistle, meaning that Paul is writing to Timothy, a pastor instructions that are specific to a pastor.

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What we read previously in first Timothy, yes, Paul was writing to Timothy, the pastor there in Ephesus, but it was pretty clear in the way those instructions were laid out.

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This was something the entire church was going to read and put into practice. Now this also was going to be a public epistle, which is why we're reading it today, because the

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Holy Spirit would intend for us to read these things and also know how they apply. But you see in the language, things that are specific to Timothy and how he is even given the responsibility to raise up other pastors in trusting the word to them.

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So pass these things on to other faithful men who will also be able to pass those things on to more faithful men.

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So we have a direct context here that has to do with raising up men who are able to teach others.

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And so when we read here, these two words to them, we're reading about the words that Paul is telling

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Timothy to pass on to other faithful men that they may be able to teach. It's possible that them could be a general reference to the church, and it certainly applies in that way.

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But I see in the direct context that we're talking about men who are teachers.

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Now what things does Timothy need to bring to their remembrance? Remind them of these things.

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Well certainly that would include the profession of faith that we had just read in the previous verses.

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Let's go back to that. Reminding ourselves of what we had read at the conclusion of the message last week.

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So in verses 11 through 13, Paul says this, the saying is trustworthy.

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We have an early confession of the first century church. If we have died with him, we will also live with him.

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If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

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If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

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So in the direct application, when Paul says remind them of these things, then he's talking about exactly that confession that we just read.

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Remind them of what was written there. But not only that, even everything else that has come in the letter before that, and even the things that are going to come after this.

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It's not like that statement exists in some sort of isolated vacuum, just remind them of this and nothing else.

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But everything that Paul teaches to Timothy here is what Timothy is to pass on to others.

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Remember that at the start of the section last week that Paul gave this instruction, we had that call to remember again.

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Verse 8, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

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And so Paul brings to Timothy's remembrance the truth of the gospel that Timothy heard

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Paul preach, that Timothy even suffered with Paul in preaching. It's at the end of the book of Hebrews, we find out

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Timothy's previously been in jail and he got let out. So just like Paul had been in prison for preaching the gospel, so Timothy has also suffered these persecutions because he would preach faithfully the gospel.

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Remember these things. And then Paul says, pass them on to others that they may faithfully proclaim them as well.

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Do not forget the gospel. And again, reminding you of how we considered that last week, where Paul in verse 8 says, remember

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Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. He doesn't say, remember that this is our cultural moment.

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Remember what's going on politically in Rome right now, Timothy. Remember what's attractive to people so that you might be able to attract the most number of people.

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Look at what's trendy, what's going on right now in Ephesus, grab onto that. That'll bring more people in.

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Paul brings the focus back to the gospel. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

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Anything and everything comes back to that. As I have shared with my children,

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I share with them many times. It hasn't been one devotional lesson. It's been multiple devotional lessons where we're sitting around the family table with our

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Bibles open. And I tell to my kids, the most important thing to me and your mom is that you know

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Christ. It is fun to talk about the stuff that has happened to us during our week.

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It's fun to think about what we might be doing next week or the future plans we have as a family that are coming up in the next few months.

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And may we build great memories and have wonderful times and be able to look back on great moments where God blessed us even with laughter and joy and tough circumstances.

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But what's more important to us as your parents is that you know

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Jesus because all these moments will be nothing but memories. Christ is forever.

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And the forgiveness of sins that we are promised in Christ and the everlasting life that is set before us, all the things that we experience in this life, good or bad, will be but blips on a radar as we rejoice in him and celebrate him for all eternity.

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So we have these first two instructions that Paul gives here.

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First, these two words to them, remind them of these things. And then the second part being charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good but only ruins the hearers.

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Now to quarrel is to strive over or wrangle about trifling matters.

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So those things that aren't important really in the eternal scheme of things. And we're arguing over that the most common type of false teaching.

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This is the most common type of false teaching that you will encounter in the church is a quarrel over words because one person defines a word this way and somebody else defines a word completely different.

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And when I have helped young men, when it comes to witnessing to Mormons, even within our own community here in Casa Grande, don't just automatically assume what they believe because you read it in Mormon doctrine somewhere.

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It could be that the Mormon that you're talking to doesn't know that or has never read that before.

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So you really have to talk with them to hear what it is that they truly believe. And you will, you will use the same language.

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You will say gospel, they will say gospel, but they mean something different when they use the word gospel.

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They mean something different when they use the name of Christ. For they believe

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Christ is a created being who's the literal brother of Satan. So don't just assume that when they say,

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I love Jesus and I follow Jesus, that means they're a Christian for it is a different Jesus that they worship.

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Now that's just to provide you an example when it comes to witnessing to one particular group of people. But this pertains in all different kinds of areas.

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Again, the most common kind of false teaching that you'll find is that quarrel over words.

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I have this definition, you have this definition, which one of us is right? And this comes back to why it is so important that we rightly handle the word of truth.

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One of the, one of the things that I encountered very early in my ministry was some of the, the ministers that I would serve with, like we might go out to the local high school and share the gospel with the high school students there.

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The church where I first pastored was just catty corner of the high school. It was like in our backyard. So we could just walk right over there at lunchtime.

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We would share with the students. Sometimes we'd feed them lunch and give the gospel to them. And I noticed that some of the guys that I was with, they would minister with different language than I was using.

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So sometimes you might take a word and you might change it just a little bit thinking that this word becomes more appealing to people.

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And I'll give you an example of this. There was one of the youth leaders that was working on post Fort Riley, which was also right there next to junction city.

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And he, I heard him teaching to a group of students one time and he said, you know, Romans five eight tells us that even when we were messed up,

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Christ died for us. And I was listening to that and I was like, when we were messed up, what does he mean by messed up?

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Because you know what that verse says, right? Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

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So what is messed up? So I took him aside afterward. I kind of asked him, I was like, what do you mean by messed up?

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I never heard you in your description to the kids say the word sin. And he said, well, because they don't know what it is.

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Those students don't know what sin is. So I don't want to use words that they don't know what the meaning of them are.

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I want to use words that they can, they can better relate to. And I said, brother, aren't you a teacher of the word?

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So I said, should you not tell them exactly what the word says and then help them understand what the word means.

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Sin is worse than just being messed up. I mean,

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I can lose a football game and I'm messed up. That's not sin. I can have a dirty desk.

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If you go to my office over here, you will see plenty of garbage on my desk. I'm messed up. But God, please don't let that be sin just for having an untidy desk.

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So we understand that sin is breaking God's law. That's specifically what it says in first John, sin is lawlessness.

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It is what God has said is right and doing something else. Or as Alan had put it so eloquently in Sunday school this morning, sin is taking that beautiful estate, which

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God promises us and even wants to bless us through and saying, that's not good enough and doing it our own way.

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So it's necessary to understand exactly what scripture says that all have sinned, all have broken

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God's law. And Romans 6, 23, the wages of that sin is death.

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And then when you hear that news, then you're primed to hear the good news. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. And suddenly that news, that's finally the gospel to our ears.

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Good news because we have heard I've sinned against God and what I deserve for that is destruction.

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And yet what he gives to me through faith in Christ is life and not just life, but life everlasting.

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So I mentioned that to you to once again, beware of those quarrels over words, use the language that scripture uses.

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And if somebody doesn't understand, help them to understand the words that God has spoken through his prophets and apostles.

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Timothy will charge this people before God who hears all words and knows every intention of the heart.

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Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And he goes on to say,

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Matthew 12, 36 to 37. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak for by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned.

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So my brothers and sisters, how important it is that we get it right.

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And so those are the two words that Paul has for them. The next part, we have two words to Timothy and this in verses 15 to 18.

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The first part, really the theme verse for this passage. So rather than quarreling,

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Paul tells Timothy, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Anybody in here grow up in a Iwana? Okay, this is the Iwana theme verse, right? You might have quoted it or recited it every

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Iwana meeting or something like that. And that's where that name comes from, Iwana, approved workmen are not ashamed.

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There we go. Thank you. Josh filled out the rest of it for me. And it comes from this verse, 2 Timothy 2 .15.

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This is the first of two words that Paul has for Timothy. One positive, do your best, and one negative, avoid.

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So let's first look at the different parts of the positive instruction in verse 15.

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Do your best. Now, that is not Paul telling

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Timothy, you know, as we've kind of come back to this a few times over a second, Timothy, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

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When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Got to work at it, do hard. He's not leaving it to Timothy to have to, by his own strength, do what

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God requires. But he's doing his best to present yourself to God as one approved.

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Remember what we've said previously or what we've read previously, chapter 2, verse 1, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ. Think over what I say and the

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Lord will give you understanding. So Paul constantly brings it back to relying upon Christ.

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It's not on your own strength or merit or ability. It is God who works this out in you.

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So even here when he says, do your best, it's not left for Timothy to, by his own strength, accomplish something.

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But Paul is telling Timothy to be eager, to be diligent, to be zealous, to have passion for the word.

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Now, I try, as an orator, as a public speaker, I try not to judge preachers on their enthusiasm for the word or maybe what might be perceived to be their lack of enthusiasm.

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But you know what I'm talking about. Sometimes you'll hear preachers that it'll just be, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

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And you won't hear any enthusiasm in that at all. Now, Jesus said, don't judge by appearances but judge with right judgment in John chapter 7.

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So I try not to let my flesh go, come on, man, have some passion for this. Put some oomph into it.

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But nonetheless, the instruction is given here to be zealous for the word.

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Paul even brings Timothy's attention to his own zealousness, his enthusiasm.

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He's not just going through motions and accomplishing some sort of religious right, but Paul has passion for people.

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Remember what we read last week, that Paul does all that he does for the sake of the faith of God's elect, so that the elect would come to faith hearing the gospel proclaimed.

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Souls are saved and transferred into the kingdom of God because they heard the truth and believed.

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This is Paul's passion, to be eager and diligent and zealous for the word, putting forth every effort and don't delay in it.

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As I've shared with my children, maybe some of you parents have said the same thing, delayed obedience is disobedience.

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And so even here with this instruction to do your best is wrapped up in that. The time is now.

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As we'll hear Paul say to Timothy later on, in season and out of season, to be a preacher of the truth.

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The next part of this, so do your best. The next part is present yourself to God, which means to stand before.

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And we know that God is our judge. Going back to the confession that we read last week, if we deny him, he also will deny us.

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So you stand in the fear of God, knowing that he is our judge. There's a similar phrase used in Romans 12, 1, which says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and this is your spiritual act of worship.

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So we present ourselves. It's like for us as Christians, we know every moment of every day is spent in the service of God.

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There's never a moment where you are out of his presence. Now, as we know, Christ is king when we think about the monarchy or we think about somebody in a ruling position who sits on a throne in a throne room.

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There is only one time when you were ever in the presence of that king, and that's when you're in his throne room. If you leave the throne room, if you go back to your house, you're not in the presence of the king anymore.

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But with Christ, we serve an omnipresent king who, thank

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God, is in our lives every moment of every day. And so we understand the importance of living every moment unto

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God, that we present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.

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And so Paul says to Timothy to do that very thing, present yourself to God. Now, the next part of that instruction, as one approved, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

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So to be approved by God is to be accepted. A man whose genuineness has been tested and proved.

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And Timothy's acceptance in the presence of God, once again, not dependent upon his own goodness or merit.

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It is dependent upon the righteousness of Christ that has been given to him by his faith in Jesus.

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God accepts him because he accepts his own son. And so it is the same with every one of us.

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You, as a follower of Jesus Christ, are a son or a daughter of God.

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1 John 3 .1, how great the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we might become the children of God, and so we are.

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You are a son or daughter of God, not because you were so lovable, because you weren't.

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All of us were worthy of the judgment of God. And it's because Christ's righteousness has been given to us, that we now stand before God, worthy and loved by his mercy.

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Not because we deserved it, but because he is gracious. And so Paul says, show yourself to be that way.

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If you've received the righteousness of God, live as a man righteously, as one approved.

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And this is going to stand in contrast with the false teachers that Paul will mention in a moment.

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Those same false teachers also proclaim the name of Christ. But what sets Timothy as different than they, standing in the presence of God?

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They're counterfeits, but Timothy is supposed to be the real deal. So we have do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, and then the next part, a worker.

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Now a worker, that seems pretty evident, the definition of that word. It is a laborer.

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In this case, it is a laborer for the gospel. This labor is to be done for the approval of God and not man.

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Galatians 1 .10, Paul says, if I was trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. There are a lot of preachers out there trying to please man.

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And once again, even in my own flesh, I try not to pass judgment. Sometimes it's plainly obvious, and it should be that we call that out.

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This preacher is trying to please man instead of pleasing God. You can hear by his teaching, it doesn't come from the word of God.

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It's meant to tickle the ears. And that's even something that Paul will come into later in chapter four, where he gives this warning.

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Beware of those who are just scratching itching ears rather than preaching God's word.

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So this is a worker for the gospel who does so for the approval of God and not man.

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Next part, who has no need to be ashamed, which means that Timothy is to have no cause for disgrace.

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And this goes back to earlier when Paul said that in his preaching, though he was in prison for what he preached.

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Yet he says, he has a clear conscience. I've not done anything wrong.

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It's because I've offended man with the gospel, man who rebels against God, that I've ended up in this place, but not because Paul has done anything truly criminal.

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So he tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel. Though there are people who will come against you, you have the approval of God.

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If you have God's approval, you have no need to be ashamed. And then the next part, the last portion of this instruction in verse 15, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Now that means to present the gospel, but it also means to present it accurately.

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Peter gives this warning in 2 Peter 3 .16, he says that there are some things in Paul's letters, which are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures.

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And so the charge given here to Timothy is, beware falling into that trap, but rightly handle the word of truth.

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I've asked this of you before as a congregation. Do you believe that there is doctrine or teaching that damns?

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Do you believe that? And do you also believe that there is doctrine and teaching that saves?

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These are literally life and death matters, that we get the gospel right, and not just the gospel, but everything that is wrapped up in the teaching of God's word.

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We will see later on in 2 Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is God -breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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And again, this instruction that we have here to rightly handle the word of truth is going to be in contrast with the false teachers who do not rightly handle the word.

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So once again, we've gone through all the different parts of this instruction, but we see it once again in verse 15, to do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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And I hope as we've been going through the different parts of that instruction that you've found how that also applies to you, to a preacher, certainly, but every one of us having the responsibility to know

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God's word and handle it rightly. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 1

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Corinthians 12, Paul says, he goes through a list of spiritual gifts that different people will be endowed with by the spirit.

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Among those gifts, it is said, will be the ability to distinguish between spirits.

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And we summarize that as a spiritual gift called discernment. Charles Spurgeon had defined discernment this way.

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It is not merely knowing the difference between right and wrong.

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It's knowing the difference between right and almost right. Now, there are some that are going to be given that gift more so than others.

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But don't we all have a responsibility to be discerning? None of us can sit there and go, well, it's just not my gift.

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So, you know, who cares if I dabble in a little false teaching here and there? Every one of us have a responsibility to discern right from almost right and to rightly handle the word of truth.

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So, again, application there for every one of us. And we all must heed these warnings to beware of what comes with these false teachers.

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Look at verse 16. The second word that Paul has for Timothy is this, to avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead to more and more ungodliness.

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Now, the King James Bible, for those of you King Jamesers, says shun profane and vain babbling.

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The New American Standard Bible calls it worldly and empty chatter. The Greek words that are used here for irreverent babble can also mean empty disputing and crossing into the unhallowed.

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This is a step worse than quarreling about words, which was just warned about.

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Another term for irreverent babble is just very simply false teaching. It's that which 1

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Timothy 6 3 says does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.

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So it is those words that Christ taught, his apostles taught, and will develop in us godly behavior.

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But instead, false teachers will go beyond that, beyond what

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Christ's word has said, and you'll see that the result of it doesn't become godliness, but rather ungodliness.

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Such false teachers might consider themselves to be progressive, but they progress toward more and more ungodliness.

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Now, notice that we're observing, we are observing a progressive pattern here. We started with quarreling over words.

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We go from that to irreverent babble, which results in more and more ungodliness. And if something is not done about this, as we're going to see here in a moment, it spreads like gangrene.

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This is progressive or liberal theology in a nutshell. So we might start with something true, but the false teacher continues to expound upon it until it becomes something unbiblical and even leads to damning conclusions.

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And his motivations or intentions might even be good.

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He might have good intentions with what he is doing. But you've heard this expression before, the road of good intentions leads to hell.

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Or as one songwriter put it, the road of good intentions doesn't lead to anywhere. I think sometimes that we might have this idea in our heads that false teachers are going to be like Disney villains.

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So we're just automatically, we're going to look at them and we're going to know, oh, that's a bad guy. You know what? I think there might be something off with Pastor Scar.

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Or do you think we should be suspicious of a preacher who's named Cruella DeVille? I think there might be something a little suspicious there.

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Now, there are some teachers out there that I think can be that obvious, how anyone can look at or listen to Kenneth Copeland and not get the willies.

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It's beyond me. And if you ever find yourself donating to a preacher named Creflo Dollar, that's your own fault.

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But some teachers may have perfectly honest intentions. However, their conclusions are unbiblical.

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And as I said, damning and then refusing correction and refusing to be corrected and therefore repenting of their false teaching, they are to be marked and avoided.

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Jesus said false teachers will look like us. Matthew 7, 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

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So they look just like us. They're not wearing black hats like the bad guy in a Western. They look and sound like Christians.

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They're not deliberately trying to deceive you. They are, as Paul will describe in chapter 3, verse 13, deceived and deceiving.

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Listen to what Martin Lloyd -Jones says in his studies on the Sermon on the Mount, quote, the heretics were never dishonest men.

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They were mistaken men. They should be thought of as men who were deliberately setting out or sorry, they should be thought of as men who were not deliberately setting out to go wrong and to teach something that is wrong.

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They have been some of the most sincere men that the church has ever known. What was the matter with them?

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Their trouble was this. They evolved a theory and they were rather pleased with their theory.

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And then when they went back with this theory to the Bible, they seem to find it everywhere.

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Unquote. One preacher put a reverent Bible this way. Keep on talking and soon nothing will be unholy.

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Everything will be sacred. No desire will be refused. Keep on babbling.

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Let the words twist and turn, create arguments, make it more complex than it needs to be.

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And if you keep at it, you'll hack down the whole tree. Soon you'll be left with a stump of a belief system which will cohabitate nicely with the worlds.

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It was just last month that the whole world watched as one of the largest Protestant denominations, the

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United Methodist Church, voted to approve that men and women living in all the perversions of the

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LGBTQ acrostic could be ordained as pastors over Methodist congregations.

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The United Methodist did not get here overnight. It started with one bad idea decades ago and it progressed and it spread until they all got to where they are today.

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And there are still faithful preachers, even within that United Methodist denomination, that are trying to turn back the tide.

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But they are very much in the minority. And most of them aren't even from the

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United States. They're Methodist churches in other parts of the world where this corruption has not seeped in there as deeply as it has in our nation.

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And rather than saving souls, these false preachers are leading more and more souls to hell.

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And so Paul gives this warning and he goes on to say in verse 17, these false teachers talk will spread like gangrene.

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You're familiar with gangrene? It is an infection that causes parts of the body to rot and fall off.

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I had a preacher friend who got gangrene in his thumb. He had a serious accident with his hands, had to have his hands be rebuilt.

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But even after all of that was done, he went to bed one night with a pencil point dot right there on the end of his thumb.

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He thought that looked kind of curious. The next morning, his entire thumb had rotted and he could hear the bone rattle inside it.

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So he had to get the thumb amputated and the thumb rebuilt in order to have a thumb on that hand.

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This is what happens with false teaching. This is the picture that Paul gives. If a member of the body listens to false teaching and follows it, they will decay and fall off of the body of Christ.

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Paul mentions two teachers here, Hymenaeus and Philetus as examples, continuing his theme of two in this section, in fact.

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And he even says specifically what the false teaching was that they were sharing that caused trouble in others' lives and even resulted in them having to be removed from the church.

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He says in verse 18 that Hymenaeus and Philetus have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened and they are upsetting the faith of some.

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Now, there are many false denominations out there that have made this proclamation that the resurrection has already taken place.

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The Jehovah's Witnesses are built on that very claim. There was this false teaching that came about in the 1800s, the

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Millerites that thought Jesus was going to return and they even all sold their stuff and they thought, here it comes,

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Christ is returning. And then that day came and went and he didn't come back. And so the

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Millerites died off, but they then turned into the Jehovah's Witnesses. And there was also another splinter group, a splinter group that became the

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Seventh -day Adventists off of that same false teaching. And even among them, among Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh -day

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Adventists, there are many claims of Christ's return, which never happened. And don't think that that's unique to some of those false denominations.

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I've encountered it even in reformed circles of people proclaiming that the resurrection of the dead has already taken place.

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I was conversing with a young man about it just two months ago and he said that the resurrection happened in 70

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AD. Like the resurrection of the dead, Christ returned and the dead rose when the destruction of the temple happened in AD 70.

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And I said, it's funny that you mentioned that. Because in the church that I grew up in, that has this nice little graveyard out back, all those graves are still full.

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So how is it that the resurrection of the dead has already happened when Christian brothers and sisters of mine, their bodies are still in those graves?

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Paul says plainly in 1 Thessalonians 4 that on that day that Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise first.

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And then we who are left will be caught up together with them in the air. And so we will always be together with the

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Lord. My friends, we're still waiting for that day. And it is heresy.

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Paul goes as far as to call it heresy when a person is proclaiming that the resurrection of the dead has already happened.

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And he says, they are upsetting the faith of some. It's not just that, you know what?

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It's causing some fighting and some disagreement in the body. People are kind of squabbling about it. So maybe we should do something about this.

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No, it is upsetting their faith. It is making them question the truth. Am I really believing the right thing?

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And they said the resurrection's already happened. Did I miss the boat? And so what am

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I believing in this for? What am I suffering down here for if I already missed the call?

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And so Paul demonstrates this is how. This can spread in the church, cause people to doubt and to fall away.

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But then lastly, we have two words from the Old Testament. In verse 19, we read this.

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God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his.

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And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now the Bible warrants that there will be false teachers in the church.

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Why are there false teachers today? Because the Bible says there will be. Jesus said, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing and inwardly are ravenous wolves.

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Peter said, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who secretly bring in destructive heresies.

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Paul stirs Timothy not to be discouraged. God's firm foundation stands.

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You know, you have to wonder if Timothy sees what Hymenaeus and Philetus are teaching, that's upsetting the faith of some, might cause

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Timothy as a young pastor to question, are we doing this right? What are we messing up? That there are false teachers that are coming in here.

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So Paul gives him this assurance. God knows those who are his.

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His firm foundation stands. And no false teacher can destroy the church that Christ is building up with his gospel.

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Paul says, bearing this seal that reinforces that the work cannot be undone.

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So God's firm foundation stands and it is sealed with the Holy Spirit and no false teacher is going to be able to undo it.

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And this is not a new revelation for Paul goes back to the Old Testament to solidify it.

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He gives two references. The Lord knows those who are his, which is a statement made in number 16 .5.

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And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, which is Isaiah 52 .11.

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Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing, go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh.

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Now, in case you're unfamiliar with the number 16 reference, what story do we read about in number 16?

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Does anybody know? Korah's rebellion. So you had this tribe among the

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Levites that God had singled out to carry the sacred things of the tabernacle.

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You know, we're familiar with hearing that if you even touch the Ark of the Covenant, you die, right?

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Well, it wasn't just the Ark of the Covenant. It was all the sacred things that were in the Holy place, including the lamp stand, including the table of the presence, everything that was there.

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Only the priests could minister with those things. Only the high priest could walk into the Holy of Holies and make those sacrifices before the

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Ark of the Covenant. Now, there was a particular tribe of Levites that God had singled out with the responsibility of carrying those sacred things.

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They would be wrapped by the priests, but then it was the tribe of Korah that would carry those things to the next location where God would set the tabernacle.

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And then they would present those things to the priests. The priests would walk into the Holy place and uncover them and set them there.

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This was the Korahites, the tribe of Korah. They were given this responsibility.

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And what a glorious task that they might be able to stand in the presence of God in this way and serve in God's house like this.

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But Korah was not satisfied. He thought, you know what?

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I am just as qualified to be a Moses or an Aaron. And he even gets together hundreds of men alongside him.

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We can all do this. In fact, follow us, we'll take you back to Egypt. That was a continuing complaint that came up from these people.

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And so Moses had Korah and his company bring censors with fire and incense.

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And to present them at the entrance of the tent of meeting along with Moses and Aaron. And Moses warned the congregation, depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest you be swept away with their sins.

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And even as Moses is making that declaration, Korah and those men just still stood there so confident in themselves that God was going to choose them.

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And he chose them all right for destruction. And the ground opened up and swallowed

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Korah and his companions and all that belonged to them. And then fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering their incense.

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God showed who truly belonged to him and who did not.

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And so even if we can't see whether a person truly loves

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God or they're just using the language and maybe their hearts are far away from God. We have this assurance from scripture.

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God knows those who are his and let all those who proclaim the name of the

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Lord depart from iniquity. And so my friends, the charge is given to us that we would live holy, upright and godly lives in the present day.

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Departing from iniquity and following in Christ. Let me conclude with these words from Jesus in John 10 verses 14 and 28.

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I am the good shepherd and my own know me.

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I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hands.

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I know my sheep and my sheep know my voice and they will follow me.

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To those who are his, Christ has given his own life and resurrection from the dead that we may have fellowship with God and life everlasting.

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But those who do not belong to him will have pleasure in unrighteousness that they may come into judgment and perish under the wrath of God.

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And Timothy was to be assured that God will judge those who are false and he will deliver those who are true.

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And my friends, if you are among those who are truly in the Lord, then understand this, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Praise to glory, armed by faith and winged by prayer.

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Hell's eternal days before thee,

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God's own hand shall guide thee there.

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Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days.

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Hope shall change to glad fruition, faith to sight and prayer to grace.

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This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more