Tim Robinson's Installation Service

A Charge to Preach the Word in a Dark and Lost World

Going to welcome everybody here this evening. We are blessed in so many ways. God has taken our congregation over the last eight years with Pastor Jeff and to see how the fellowship, how the strength of the power of the Word of God.

Jeff is an evangelist in case you don't know that. And I guess at one point in time he was over at, what's that gym called? Lifetime Athletics and he met some young men there. And one of them has been used by God in powerful ways, has raised him up in powerful ways.

And tonight we are going to celebrate a calling that God has given to Tim and given to our church a gift in Pastor Tim that can be with us. We're going to have a couple of opportunities to hear a charge.

I'll give one, Pastor Jeff is going to give a charge. And then there's a special speaker. I'm going to let you introduce him. I won't say anything about it. But this is God's night. This is to his glory.

And the emphasis in this glory tonight as he gives us is you Pastor Tim and the young lady that sits next to you because you're part of this also Mary Elizabeth. I'm going to open us with a word of prayer and then give the initial charge.

Our dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we come to you in recognition of your sovereignty, in recognition of the love that you have given us, in recognition of the blood of Christ. We are unworthy, but yet you found in your grace the calling.

And we celebrate tonight your church. We celebrate tonight the fact that your church is a reflection of you to your glory. And that we celebrate tonight because you have allowed your church to be represented here in Mount Laurel.

And now Lord, we celebrate tonight because you have called Pastor Tim. We turn this over to you for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. My brother Tim, the Lord's called you to bring his word to a dark and a lost world.

Romans 10 .14 puts it this way, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

This passage gives me three thoughts that I want to share with you. The first is we know this, the world is under the influence of Satan. He is relentless and he is always on the attack. And this world that we live in is saturated with false gospels.

God gives us the true gospel. In this passage, we can understand that those who have not yet called on the name of the Lord, a preacher is needed. But I would also say that those who have called on the name of the Lord that are still under the influence of the flesh, that are still on the attack by Satan, a preacher is needed.

So my charge to you tonight is going to come out of 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the world by his appearing and his kingdom.

Now hear these words. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Three messages. First, preach the word. Your message must always be grounded in truth.

It must have the truth of the gospel as its foundation and as its entirety of message. Don't let the world influence you in any way. Don't let the culture of the world, don't be desirous of increase through compromise.

And always, always be encouraged because we know that the word of God will not return void. So preach the word. The second message is that you are to be ready in season and out of season. Pastor Tim, there are going to be times when you are called on to preach and there will be times when you are called on to teach.

There will be times that you are called on to lead youth and you should be ready for these. And these should be times when you bring out the truth of all life, of all of God's word. But Tim, there are going to be times that just happen as life may happen.

And so he says, preach the word in season and out of season. You are not just a pastor when you are here at the church. You are not just a pastor if you're in the pulpit or teaching a class, you are a pastor 24 seven.

And so on all occasions, Pastor Tim, be ready to preach the word in season and out of season. You are also, you are also given a charge that you are to reprove, rebuke and exhort with patience and instruction.

And Pastor Tim, you need to know your flock because each of the people that you will be ministering to are going to have needs, are going to have stresses in their life. You need to know who your flock is and you need to know about them.

And then you need to be willing to meet the needs of your flock, whether it's to reprove them or to rebuke them, to exhort them, to encourage them, but always done with patience and instruction that comes from the word of God, with the love of God.

And so I give you three challenges off of this charge. First, Pastor Tim, be a man of prayer. Let your day be salted with prayer. Let the activities of your life be salted with prayer and always, always be in study of the word of God because that will hold you up.

I encourage you to know the God of the gospel, not just the gospel of a God. And so when you're preaching and when you're leading and feeding others, I'm encouraging you, I'm challenging you to lead them to know the God of the gospel.

Rely on the Holy Spirit. It is him that it will open the hearts of those you teach, of those you reach, of those that you shepherd. Rely on the Holy Spirit. It's not your strength. It's God's strength.

And it's not your glory. It's his glory. And finally, have confidence in the power of God. There are going to be times of challenge. There are going to be times that you're going to feel stressed. There are going to be times that you feel worn down.

Rely on the power of God because that's what's going to make a difference in the ministry as you, as you step out and do his work. Tim, remember that the substance of our faith is the sovereignty of God in all things.

But yet we know that God, according to his sovereign will, chooses to use people, men, women, to speak his truth. Pastor Tim, he has called you to speak truth. To quote William Carey, expect great things from God.

Attempt great things for God. Tim, it's hard for me to.

Character, Calling, and Finishing Well in Ministry

Believe that it's been already about six years since you were baptized. On that day, Timmy here, my son was also baptized. And one of you was called first Timothy and the other second Timothy. We're just not sure which one is which.

It has been a true joy for me as a minister and as a friend to see your progress in the faith. We have seen you grow from a young man learning the basics of the word to a man who has gone through seminary and has trained in righteousness and has grown such that everyone has seen your progress.

Keep doing that. I have a word of encouragement to you, a charge that I would like you to focus on. And that is character first. Character over the applause of men. Character over the accolades. Character over everything.

There is a temptation when you come into ministry to begin to strive for outward measures of success. And this has led, sadly, many ministers to fall. Many have started out well, and you, Tim, have started out exceedingly well.

Being so young in the faith to already become a pastor, you are on a fast track. But I have a word for you from second Timothy two, verses 20 to 22. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay.

Some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use. Set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions. Guard your heart from temptation. Open no doors to the evil one. Do not give the enemy a foothold. Let your heart be right before God and guard your heart from the temptations of the enemy.

Flee youthful passions. But there's something that you are to pursue, and that is righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. If you focus on building from the inside out, from a heart that is genuine before God, and you build in that way, you will be found a vessel for honorable use.

See, the key is to finish well, not just to start strong. And you must build character day by day. So let your routine, the habits that you build, be something that's sustainable for a life of ministry.

That's daily prayer, daily time in the Word, focusing on the things that are unseen, not on what's in the limelight, not what's on YouTube or what happens in the pulpit when everybody can see you, but who you are when no one's looking, when it is you and God with His Word daily, keeping your heart right before Him.

Build character from the inside. Focus on God's Word. Pursue righteousness. It doesn't here say pursue fanfare or pursue the largest number in an audience. It says pursue righteousness. Let that be your ambition.

Pursue faith. Pursue love. And I shared with the congregation when we called you to be pastor that what the elders and myself saw in you was not a polished minister, someone who has everything put together and has figured out what it means to look good on the outside.

What we saw in you was love, faith, hope, love. But the greatest of these is love. Cultivate that. Love people as you do and let that love grow warmer and stronger over the years and peace. And do this along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

And so that's my charge to you, brother. Focus on the purity of heart, the character of a minister, and let everything else come as God wills.

Psalm 134. It's a beautiful little three verse psalm near the end of the Psalter. Come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. It is my.

The Church, the University, and the Need for Biblical Faithfulness

Distinct privilege to introduce tonight, our preacher at Tim's installation service. I did not tell Tim who it would be. And the reason I did that, I don't know. I just thought it would be fun for Tim to be the only one guessing while all of us knew.

So we do have the privilege this evening of hearing from the president of Cairn University. Now you all know that Tim is a graduate of Cairn University, but that would not have been enough for me to invite Dr. Williams.

The reason I invited Dr. Williams is because I have seen him do what very few university and seminary presidents have been able to do. And that is to resist the leftward drift. Very often there is compromise with the culture and a leftward drift comes into what we thought were evangelical institutions.

Dr. Williams has protected Cairn from that and has kept a conservative faculty that loves God's word, that is not willing to compromise on the truth of God's word. It was an article that Dr. Williams wrote in November or December.

I will send that out to all of you in a Pastogram to let you see what it was. But when I read that and how he nailed the point, you know how when you read something and it just hits the point on social justice and critical race theory in this case, and I just thought now that is how it needed to be said.

And I found it just really helpful. So that's when I knew I wanted to invite Dr. Williams. And so Dr. Williams, would you please come and share this charge? Thank.

You, Pastor Jeff. It is a pleasure to be here. My first time here at this church, but it's been really great to walk in the door and see that there are some good connections to the university already.

Some alumni in the house and some of you coming to visit at the next open house at the university. So I bring you greetings from Langhorne. Let me just say over at Cairn University, among other things, we're committed to being a resource for the conservative evangelical community around us and actually across the country and around the world as we're able.

So please, I invite you to take advantage of all that we have available, podcasts, resources. There's quite a bit out there from the chapel series that we run to the magazine and other things, as Pastor Jeff said, and you'll send that around.

You can find your way to us. Come over. It's really not that far. I made it here and about 35 minutes would have been 30 if not for that state trooper, but it's really, it's not that far. We consider this part of the neighborhood and we have a number of folks from over in New Jersey and down this way.

And so I just want to bring greetings to all of you. I want to thank Pastor Jeff for the invitation and I want to congratulate Tim on this opportunity that the Lord has set before him to take up this post here at this church with all of you.

And nice to meet Mary Elizabeth. And I think that these are exciting days for you, the two of you for this church. You know, I have developed a skill over the years of sizing things up rather quickly.

I can sort of walk in. I got my start in the horse business some years ago when I was a younger man, much younger man. And I went to work at a Christian camp. And that's actually where I met my wife, Dawn, who's a registered nurse.

I was running the horse program one summer. Dawn showed up as the nurse. I was sick a lot that year. And we met and were engaged, married and served there. But in the horse business, you learn very quickly to sort of size up what's going on, which what the situation is with a herd, how something's going.

And I always enjoy sort of walking in and looking around. And I will tell you, I have just some observations. This is a church with great energy. I actually leaned over and said to Tim, they do this every Sunday night, or is this something special?

This is a good crowd to come out for a Sunday evening. It shows your commitment to this church and to your pastors and to this new man that will be serving, whom you know and has been serving here. But it's a good energy in this church.

It's very clear that there's a spiritual sensitivity. And just in the little while that I've had to interact with Pastor Jeff, not just spiritual sensitivity, but some really good spiritual sensibilities as well, which is important in the day in which we live.

So I'm excited to be here this evening to share some thoughts, primarily to you, Tim, but also to you as a congregation, because I do think that we find ourselves in some very interesting times, times in which it is easy to be discouraged.

But we should be reminded of certain promises from the Word of God, not the least of which is that Jesus will never leave us, nor forsake us. But also this, that as we watch the church struggling to find its way, and by implication, parachurch ministries, and as Pastor Jeff mentioned, colleges and universities are not exempt from the pressures of the world.

We're reminded that it is the Lord who builds his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Jesus Christ is at work in this world and the church, his bride and body, is carrying out that important work.

And for all the things that are taking place and all the different kinds of ministries that are happening, it is the church that is the body and bride of Christ. And the manifestation of that body and bride in the local church body is absolutely essential.

There is no finer or more important work to do. And you're fortunate to have a pastoral staff that is committed to biblical ministry and blessed to have a congregation that obviously supports that as well, where evangelism and discipleship, a love for God's Word and his people is evident, not just on your website, but in the room.

And so I want to commend you along those lines and tell you what a privilege it is to be here. And I do want to share a passage of scripture from 1 Timothy. I've had references to 2 Timothy, and so I'll move to 1 Timothy.

And I have a great love for these two letters that Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. I love the personal dimension of these letters. What an encouragement it is to actually see that Tim is not someone who fell backwards into this church, but is a product of the church and its ministry.

And that's a blessing, actually, to have a relationship like that, to watch someone grow. That's a tremendous blessing. And I love these letters that Paul writes to his spiritual son, Timothy, because they have that sort of personal tone to them.

Paul knows Timothy, and Timothy knows Paul. Paul knows the work that he has set before Timothy, and Timothy has watched Paul actually do that work himself. There's something really personal and organic and relational about these letters.

But because of that, because of that strong personal connection and because of the profound personal faith that these two men exhibit, there is also no holding back on sharing things that are weighty.

I think one of the things that I fell in love with reading these two letters over and over again when I came to faith as a teenager and quickly found myself in the camping ministry, I thought, wow, here's Paul writing to this young guy, and he's giving it to him straight.

I mean, the word charge is in here several times, right? I charge you, I charge you, I charge you, I charge you. There's no mistaking this reality that when the Apostle Paul is talking to Timothy about the work in the church, he expects it to be taken seriously.

I'm often asked when I'm talking to groups of rising leaders, they'll ask me sort of, so, you know, do you have any parting advice? And I always like that because there's one thing I always forget to say in the middle, and I like to say it at the end, that I say to young and emerging leaders, and it's this, take your work very seriously.

Yourself, not too much. And the Apostle Paul is doing that for Timothy. He is laying it on that there are certain things about this work in the church that you must understand and commit to, and I'm charging you as your spiritual father to take this work very seriously.

It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be moments of joy, and it doesn't mean it's not carried out with love, and it doesn't mean it won't be personal, but Paul seems to want to impress upon Timothy the weight of it.

And so often when I read through these two epistles, I'm struck by, I find myself saying, what must it have been like for Timothy, right? To actually receive this instruction and to think about it. Now I'm on the other side of my fifth decade, and I actually start thinking what it must have been like for Paul.

He says that I'm already being poured out like a drink offering. He's at the end of it. He says, I've fought the good fight. I've run the race. I have endured. I'm awaiting the crowns that are there for me, and I'm passing this on to you as you carry out this work.

The Apostle Paul, when he says, I'm looking now back at my life, and I'm looking to the next generation of ministry leaders, and he turns to Timothy to give him all of this wisdom and all of these exhortations and encouragements and all of these charges, if you just reflect back, it's easy to say, well, here's the senior statesman, Paul, at the end of his life saying, go get him, Timothy.

Here it is. Go get him. We forget that this Paul is the one we read about in the book of Acts that says he ravaged the church. He dragged men and women from their homes and took them to be persecuted, if not killed.

This Apostle Paul, who says the passage that was shared at the beginning with patience, with love, exhort, encourage, this Apostle Paul as the senior statesman of the church who's turning to this rising leader and says, I charge you with these things.

This is the Apostle Paul who in the book of Acts is tormenting the church. And on the road to Damascus, Jesus says, why do you kick against the goads? Don't you see how hard it is for you? And the miraculous conversion and the period of humility and learning and studying and being discipled, then finding himself launched into advancing the church, which he had been hunting down to eradicate.

It's a remarkable transformation. When Paul is charging Timothy to be a faithful steward of the gospel, it's because he himself has been changed by it. And I think it's so easy to read the drama and the position into all of this without seeing Paul has come to the end of his life and he's saying now the church is going to move into Timothy's hands and it's Paul is pouring out his heart to Timothy as he himself is being poured out as a drink offering.

He's been beaten and left for dead on more than one occasion. Shipwrecked, lost in a fog, dragged from one trial to another, separated from his friends and families, thwarted. He's been in privation and starvation.

He's been destitute. The apostle Paul has lived quite a life and here he comes to the end and he's basically saying to Timothy, I'm going to impart a few things to you. And there are many things that he imparts to Timothy in these two letters.

And I just want to, Tim, for your sake, focus on one that I think is profound and a good one to remember because I have at times made a mistake about first and second Timothy. When I was young and coming up and being discipled, I think I, I fell in love with the book of Timothy because someone said, Oh yeah, this is Paul charging a younger man to carry out ministry.

And somehow I thought Timothy and I were in the same boat at 18 or 19. You're 29. This guy's got you by a few years. Timothy is no child. And yet the apostle Paul says this to him, which is really something.

In chapter three, chapter four of first Timothy, the apostle Paul says this to Timothy, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity until I come devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Do not neglect the gift you have, you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council letters laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

You read through this and you'll see recurring themes like the ones that were already shared, like that one from, uh, first Timothy and the other one from second Timothy about being ready to preach the word in season.

You'll see these recurring themes, but this phrase is an interesting one. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love. I can tell you that for a long time, I read this wrongly.

I read it this way. Don't let them look down their noses at you just because you're young. Don't let them despise you just because you're young. Almost like it's, he's saying to Timothy, Hey, don't, don't worry about them looking down.

Don't, don't let anyone cast a judgment on, don't let anyone make you feel less than you are because of your age. That's not what's being said here. What's being said here is don't let anyone blame what you're doing on your age.

What the apostle Paul is saying to Timothy here is don't let anyone despise you because of your youth. In other words, don't let anyone say, what do you expect? He's just a young guy. What do you expect?

He's only been in the faith a little. What do you expect? He's just a new pattern. What do you, what do you expect? The apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, don't let anyone excuse your conduct, judgment, ministry, and actions on the basis of your age.

Don't let them say, well, after all, in fact, what he says to Timothy is not only don't let your age be a reason for people to despise you, rather set an example. He's actually laying it on pretty heavy for this young man.

He's basically saying, you don't get a pass because of your age and don't let any, don't, don't behave, think, act, minister, carry out your calling in a way that would allow people to blame that on your age.

Rather you set a higher bar, you set the example. That laying on a burden, which is what Paul is doing. If you think about it is counter-cultural. We live in a day and age, which attempts to sort of smooth everything out and stroke everybody's egos and comfort.

And Paul is at the end of his life, Timothy is taking on new responsibilities. And Paul says, I charge you, be ready, be a workman ready to be there. Who's not ashamed, right? Rightly dividing the word of truth.

Holy cow. I got to, okay, I got to do that. Right? And then be a good soldier. Fight the good fight. Don't get entangled in this thing. Holy cow. Okay. There's that. Then teach the younger ones this. Okay.

And then settle these disputes and then be ready in season and out of season to preach the word. And you got to think, Timothy's saying, what in the world did I sign up for? Why would I do this? And that's always the way to think about Jesus' disciples.

Hey guys, drop your nets. Come with me. I'll make you fishers of men. Oh, that sounds pretty cool. By the way, when you're old, they're going to hang you upside down on a cross. When Christ, Bonhoeffer said, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

For all of us, not just those who are set apart for pastoral work in the church, but for all of us to follow Jesus is to take up your cross daily, to die to yourself. So when the apostle Paul is laying it on Timothy here, one charge after another, one thing after another, he is not just impressing upon him the seriousness of the job.

It's actually the faith is not to be trifled with. You're a follower of Jesus Christ. You've been bought with a price. You've been redeemed by the sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, who was obedient to the death, even death on a cross.

Live like that matters. Jesus' disciples experienced the same thing, right? I mean, they, Jesus is calling them to himself. They think he's going to bring political liberation. They think he's going to get rid of the Romans.

They think he's going to do this. They think he's going to do that. Jesus is constantly confounding them, basically saying, listen, you know, you're looking for certain things from me that might not be a good thing.

Remember, there's this great picture in the gospels where Jesus is healing people and word is spreading. And the crowds are coming in such numbers that they're actually beating on the door, right? We want to be with Jesus.

We want to see Jesus. They're bringing their sick relatives. They're bringing everybody around. And it goes on for a long period of time. And then the disciples realize Jesus is missing. And they're looking for him.

And they find him off in a quiet place in the backyard somewhere praying. And they're like, Jesus, what are you doing? You got a whole crowd out there, like big stuff's going on here. What are you doing?

He says, let's go away to the towns over there, that I might teach there also, because that's what I came to do. You can imagine the disciples saying, is he nuts? Like, we've like, you talk about throwing a wet blanket on a marketing boom, like we're healing people, and they're coming out of everywhere.

And Jesus says, No, no, you don't understand. It's not my, it's not, it's not my purpose to do these things. I've come to actually teach the Father's way. And he actually moves away. And every time the disciples start to feel this momentum, they start thinking with with their worldly minds, like the numbers, the huge numbers, oh, get rid of the Romans, oh, political this, oh, this is cultural power, this, oh, Jesus says, now we're going to take a turn.

And so much so that at the end, when he says, they're going to kill me, they're like, please stop talking like that. Well, this is the issue to follow Christ is to take up your cross and go after him.

And that's for all of us. But what the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy now in these charges, is when you lay your hand to this work, you are taking up a charge that's supposed to take all of you. And the culture around you will want to say, hey, you know, you I read this, and I think I probably, I probably would have said, you're going to be fine, Tim.

It's going to be great. You're going to knock them dead. You're more gifted than anybody we know. You've got this going for you. And you've got that going for you. And basically, Paul says, I charge you do this, I charge you do this, take this seriously, don't let your age be an excuse for those.

And you know, I'm being poured out like a drink offering, which means you're gonna to eventually there's this sense in which Paul is not trying to make Timothy feel better about what he's doing. He's trying to impress upon him, you're to be a good soldier in the service of your king, you must obey these orders and take it very seriously.

That doesn't mean you're not gonna have fun. This this place loves you. I can tell she loves you, which is a good thing. And someone tell him smart men always marry up, always marry up, right? Amen. There's lots of things to enjoy.

There's lots of things to laugh about to smile about. There's lots of things to to have fun with in this work of the church. But Paul is laying out some sober charges to Timothy that he is to be as was said, focused on his own godliness, setting an example in purity in speech, in attitude, he is to be able to handle the word and ready to preach whenever a good soldier who doesn't become entangled in frivolities and trivial things and civilian pursuits, someone who is furthering the gospel and doing the work of an evangelist fulfilling your ministry.

These are heavy weighted charges. And I do think that it's worth thinking about those in the context in which we find ourselves. So if I may, just make a few observations. There is an all out assault in the world in which we live.

On truth. There is this sense that all of us as human beings are truth makers. What Paul is telling Timothy throughout these two letters is be a truth seeker. You don't get to make it up. It's not your truth, my truth, anybody's truth, it is the truth rightly dividing the word of truth.

The culture is bent on destroying the idea of truth. And the temptation is for all of us who are followers of Jesus, and I think doubly so on those of you who are ministers, pastoring is to take a little off the pitch when it comes to truth because it's such a hard pill for people to swallow.

It would be more comfortable to sort of take a little off the pitch and talk in more relativistic ways that put people at ease. It would make their life more comfortable, it would make my life more comfortable.

But I'm reminded of the wisdom of C .S. Lewis, who said, if you choose to seek comfort over truth, in the end, you will have neither. And only in seeking truth, will you find true comfort. Paul, there's so many references in here to enduring hardship and suffering.

And he knew what that meant in the form of stonings and beatings and imprisonments and privation and shipwrecks. The suffering in our day in the context in which you serve and you serve, is so far, they're not dragging us into the street and stoning us or beating us and leaving us for dead.

But there is no less the idea that we must endure suffering when we are ridiculed for believing in absolute truth, when we're believing in the authority of Scripture, when we're holding to the idea that human beings made in the image and likeness of God are sinners in need of salvation.

We keep holding those things and proclaiming those things, the pressure will come to find something else that is more palatable, more comforting, more winsome in our approach. So I think that when I look at the charges given to Timothy, one of those about focusing on enduring and fighting the good fight and holding to it is to not let the culture push you in a direction that you know to be counter to the Word of God.

It will want to affect your sensibilities, the way you judge things and think about things. Hold, hold, hold. The second thing I think about the world in which you minister now is not just that people want what Paul warns Timothy here, in the end time, people will come wanting to be tickled and itched and want to hear things that make them feel better about themselves.

It's actually worse than that for us, I think, because the issue is other people in our ranks will say, it's okay to give them that. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay to go easy. And that's really problematic because that's not really loving people as the Lord commands us to do.

Because when we love them, we want them to have all the blessings of God that come from believing in his truth and pursuing him. It isn't just that people will come in those times wanting their ears to be itched and wanting to be tickled in ways that makes them feel better about themselves.

It's that those in our own ranks will say it's okay to do that. And we have to resist that urge. And I think one of the ways in which that happens is go to our brother's initial charge is that there are many crises facing the evangelical community in the days in which we live.

We can talk about the philosophical ones, and we can talk about the assault on truth, and we can talk about the political and cultural issues, the rejection of God's authority and his created order, and all of those things.

But when a disregard for the word of God creeps into the church, that's the slippery slope. The slippery slope is when we no longer uphold the pulpit and the teaching of Scripture and the preaching of Scripture.

And Paul's charges to Timothy throughout these two letters, they're replete with these ideas that you keep teaching, you keep preaching, you keep holding this forth, you keep the word of God central, you be a workman who needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, be ready to preach in season and out of season.