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There are going to be times when those who are attempting to sow discord in your church are going to have to be called out in front of everybody. But then there are times when those who are faithful to the Lord should likewise be singled out before the church when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com.
Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our text in 2 Timothy 1. And as we finish up this chapter today, I'm going to come to verse 15 and read through verse 18. The Apostle Paul writes,. You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes.
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.
And you well know all the service that he rendered at Ephesus. So I mentioned yesterday that after preaching on the doctrine of God's sovereign election, that he is predestined from the foundation of the world, who would be saved and who would be the objects of his wrath.
I mentioned that half my church responded with vitriol, with absolute outrage that I would dare preach such a thing. And there wasn't a church split because those who were angry at me teaching that, they were not unified.
They were divisive and sowed seeds of discord among brothers. So they didn't leave the church to therefore start their own kind of a thing. A couple of them were together on stuff, but it's not like they could form a unified group because they didn't agree on anything.
All they knew was they were opposed to this doctrine of God's sovereign election. And so it was a very tough season in which I lost some friends. I was stabbed in the back, people that I thought that I trusted and loved, and yet they turned on me so quickly just because I said that God had predestined from the foundation of the world who he would call his elect.
And it's what the Bible says. I wasn't teaching anything other than what scripture teaches, and nor was I even going on my own tangent to say, OK, guys, now we're going to talk about Calvinism and we're going to go through Tulip.
So let's begin with total depravity. You know, that wasn't even my ambition. I only taught what the scriptures taught as we came to it. I'm an expository preacher. So I'm going to preach through entire books of the Bible at a time.
And when we come to those topics and those things as they arrive in scripture, that's what I'm going to talk about that. And you can see it in context and you can see that I'm not making this up. But as the Apostle Paul presents this in Second Timothy, even telling Timothy that the faith that you have did not come from you, you had faithful women in your life that taught you the gospel, your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and how I came upon you and grew you in your understanding of the gospel and those who shared the testimony about our Lord long before we started on this calling that God has called us to by his own purpose and grace.
This work that we do, it's never ours. It's never our ambition. It is never something that we just will ourselves into doing or decide that we're going to do someday. It is by God's own purpose that he has called us to salvation and he has called us to this work of ministry.
And so again, as an expository preacher, I come to those things so that you can see them in context and you know that I'm not out to try to advance my own agenda or talk about the things that I want to talk about.
I want you to know the full counsel of God and come under the authority of his word, which is inerrant and sufficient for our every need, the word of God that we have here in the Bible. And so even as I would talk about biblical concepts and desire to teach the scriptures from beginning to end, yet there were people who would sit in my congregation and we would be opposed to some of those things that the scriptures clearly talk about.
And so I shared in some of those sufferings in whatever mitigated way as compared to the apostle Paul. I mean, he went through way more suffering than I did, but nonetheless went through ridicule and people turning on me because I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so as Paul comes to this here in 2 Timothy 1 15, he says, you're aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are for jealous and hermogenies even mentions a couple of the names of people who stabbed him in the back.
They acted like they were trustworthy friends, and yet they turned on him when things got tough for the apostle Paul. He mentions some other names in this letter as well. When you get to the end in chapter four, he mentions Demas and I've talked about Demas before how Demas has spoken about in spoken about with favor in Colossians.
But then when you see his name come up again in 2nd Timothy, Demas ended up abandoning Paul while he was in prison and going back to Thessalonica because Demas was too in love with this world. The going got tough and instead of toughing it out and remaining steadfast in this mission work that was before him for the gospel of Christ, Demas instead turned his back on the apostle Paul and ran back to a place where he felt a little bit more comfortable.
And that was there in Thessalonica. So this is one of the reasons to why Paul says in chapter one, verse eight, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, because Phagellus and Hermogenes were, they were ashamed of the apostle Paul.
And so was Onesimus, which was exactly why they ran away. But Paul says, may the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus. So even though he calls out those who abandoned him and stabbed him in the back and left him in his darkest hour and even betrayed him, probably turning him over to the hands of his enemies and those who wanted to kill him, Paul calls them out.
He calls him out by name. He warns Timothy of them, but he also praises somebody who stuck with him when the going got tough. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me and he was not ashamed of my chains.
But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and he found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you well know all the service that he rendered at Ephesus.
So he desires that Onesiphorus would be paid back with great kindness, though Timothy needed to be aware of Phagellus or Phagellus and Hermogenes. Paul, again, he brings out some names in chapter four and he warns Timothy of Alexander the coppersmith.
He did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. But Paul still being a big softy, still desiring that those, even those who had betrayed him would turn from their sin, would repent of their sin and know Christ.
He says in verse 16, at my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.
So Paul, they're saying, may it not be charged against them, though they abandoned me in a time of need. May the Lord not hold it against them. Very similar to something Jesus prayed from the cross, according to the gospel of Luke, when he saw his persecutors and those who were accusing him.
And he said, Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Even Paul had that same attitude at the end of his life before he was being taken to his death and martyred for the cause of the gospel.
So here you have a good example of Paul singling out names that he's warning Timothy about, but also singling out a name who was faithful to the gospel. And I think that in a church that we need to do the same thing.
We need to do this graciously. We don't call people's names out for the wrongs that they do because we're trying to look holier than thou or because we're trying to get rid of the sinner. Hey, once we get this guy out of our church, then we can be holy again.
But as Paul said to the Thessalonians when it came to disciplining members of their own congregation in second Thessalonians three, he said, do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. And Paul had similar instructions for the Galatians as well.
We read in Galatians chapter six, verse one, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you to be tempted.
We need to understand even in matters of church discipline that we're no better than anybody. We are just as weak in our flesh to fall into the same temptations as those who have to be called out and disciplined.
So let's not do this arrogantly with a haughty spirit, with pride, but humbly. We would plead with our brothers and sisters in the Lord to repent of their sin lest something worse should happen to them.
So there will be occasions in which names have to be singled out and people might even have to be warned about others. So I talked about the conflict that had happened in my church three years ago when there was a mass exodus of a few deacons and then people that followed them out of the church.
The other members of the church were going, what did Gabe do? What was so serious that Gabe did that caused people to make these accusations about him in this way and then leave the church? But we were very patient in the way that we responded to those things.
Some people wanted immediate answers because that's just the age in which we live. We live in that 24-hour news cycle age, in a social media age in which we can get online and find anything that we need to know at the click of a button or the click of a mouse.
And so everybody wanted a response to the questions that they were asking right away. But we very patiently said, hey, we're going to have a meeting in which we're going to talk about these things on such and such a date.
We're just asking you to wait until then. I think we even lost somebody just because we said that, because we wouldn't give them a straight, immediate answer. And they thought we were dodging and trying to hide something.
And so then they left the church simply because we were asking for people to be patient. And we're going to respond to this in a proper time. I wasn't just going to stand in the pulpit where we had visitors coming in our church that had no idea about these things that were going on and start name dropping people in the presence of everybody.
Rather, we were going to do this just among the members in a private meeting. So we had to wait until we could talk to the right people and then gather in that meeting. And so alert the church to those things that were going on.
And when we had that meeting, there were names that were called out. So and so made this accusation against me. So and so said this. But I have these men by my side. And there were men that stood up with me in front of the church and said, we have held Gabe accountable.
And we can attest to the fact that these things that these men are accusing him of are incorrect. And and so we had men who needed to be singled out and the church needed to be warned about here's what their agenda is to sow seeds of discord among brothers.
And then there were other men who were faithful to the cause of Christ that banded together and we prayed together and wept together. And I think the church that remained recognized the spirit of brotherhood that was growing among us.
We had three families that were visitors at that time, and I adored those families. And I really was concerned with all of the the conflict and the drama that was going on. I was going to lose those families and I loved meeting them and the things that they were excited about.
And I'm like, yeah, with all this conflict going on, they're just going to go. There's too much drama here. I don't want to stay here for this. All three of those families stayed and ended up being three of the most impacting, influential families in our church that have ever been in our church as long as I've been pastoring there over the past eight years.
I'm very grateful for that. And one of those families moved about a year ago because the the husband now works at the Pentagon. Remember, we are a mostly military church, so we got a lot of families that will come and go.
And I said to him on the day that he left his last Sunday in church, you know, remember all the conflict that was going on when you guys came in and I had to alert you to one of our classes shutting down because that man had to be asked to step down.
I was afraid you guys were going to get up and leave when you saw that kind of drama going on. And his response was, dude, this is a Baptist church. That's exactly what you expect to have happen in a Baptist church.
So I appreciated his mature spirit as he came in in the midst of of all of that stuff that was going on. So anyway, so there were there were men that had to be singled out and we had to warn the church about them.
And we also had to alert the church. Here's what their accusations actually are, regardless of whatever they're saying to you in private, out in public or even posting on Facebook. Here is what they actually had a problem with the problems that we had to confront them about and said, you either have to apologize for these comments or you're going to have to leave.
And in addition to calling out those who were causing division in the church, we also singled out those who were very faithful and said, these people have gone about doing this in the right way. If they had a problem with me, they they raised the concern like this.
And these people were faithful to me and prayed with me and things like that. So Paul did that with Timothy here. And I think there are going to be times and places in which that is necessary in our respective churches.
I hope that you have sound ministers in the Lord, elders that have been elected over you in the church that can handle these matters with wisdom where there are many counselors. There is wisdom. I do not believe that it is meant for a pastor to be on his own to have to deal with matters like this.
And it was that same year, 2015, that our church had shifted into plurality eldership. And I'm very, very thankful that they did. I don't know that my ministry could have survived that kind of conflict if I did not have a plurality of elders, these men that I had been in devotions with, studying the Bible with and praying together and laboring with.
I don't know that I could have come through that if it wasn't for those faithful men who encouraged me and held me up in such a difficult time. I want to come back to a passage that I apologize. I just kind of skipped past for the most part because of the other things that we talked about in verses 8 through 14.
But it's this verse, verse 12, where Paul says, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Paul said something very similar to the Philippians.
In Philippians chapter one, he said in verse six, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
And so Paul saying here that even though I am in prison, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because I know that the reason why I am here is I proclaim the truth boldly and I have shared in the sufferings of Christ.
I know whom I have believed. My trust is not in the Roman Empire. My trust is in Christ, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. And you have day as a capital D there.
And we see that word come up again in verse 18. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you well know all the service that he rendered at Ephesus because Paul was there or I'm sorry, because Timothy was there at Ephesus.
So this was how he knew Onesiphorus and some of the work that Paul was praising him for that particular verse, verse 12. I know whom I have believed. That's the name of one of my all time favorite hymns.
And the hymn goes like this. I know not why God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own. I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart.
I know not how the spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him. I know not when my Lord may come at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the veil with him or meet him in the air.
But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Words by Daniel Whittle and music by James McGranahan. It's a terrific hymn.
If you haven't ever sung it, ask your music leader at church maybe to lead you in that particular hymn this Sunday. One of my all time favorite hymns and it's taken some of it is taken word for word out of this very thing that Paul has said to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 12.
I am not ashamed of the gospel for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. I pray that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ and you know that whatever comes your way in this life, be convinced that Christ, just as he worked in you to believe the gospel when you heard it, he will work in you to remain steadfast in that gospel until the day of his return.
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.
Find a good gospel teaching Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.