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2 Timothy 1:6-14
Turn in your Bibles with me this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. We're going to continue our going through 2 Timothy. Thank you, brother. Throughout history, we have seen amazing feats of power and strength.
And those feats, they come in many different forms. You've probably in your life witnessed great feats of power and of strength. I remember when I was younger, my brothers and I, we would gather around the television in the living room to watch the annual World's Strongest Man competition.
We would watch as these men who were physically powerful, they would perform what would seem like superhuman acts of power, such as they would lift cars, or they would pull airplanes. They would strap them up and these men would just walk and pull airplanes behind them.
We would watch this over and over. We were amazed at their strength, and among those, we had a favorite. His name was Zydrunas Savickas. He was a four-time winner, six-time runner-up, and many believe that he was the strongest man in the modern era.
He's able to squat 1 ,000 pounds twice, like going up and down twice. He's able to bench press 630 pounds. And he's accomplished many feats of strength that most thought were impossible for a human being.
He's a truly powerful man. We have biblical examples of feats of strength in strong men. You think of Samson. Samson had supernatural strength and many seemingly impossible feats of strength. Powerful acts of strength given him by God.
This morning, though, I want us to look at an act of strength more powerful than any strong man has accomplished. An act of power even more powerful than Samson slaying an entire army of Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.
Look with me at 2 Timothy. We're going to begin in verse 6. Let's stand this morning as we reverence the reading of God's holy word. 2 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 6. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God has given us not the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind or self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His own purpose and grace for which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do, but 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.
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
Let us pray.
Father God, we thank You for, Lord, the opportunity that we can come and gather on this Lord's Day. May we see this as a gift. May we see this, Lord, as a gift that You have given us on this day to devote to the worship of You.
Lord, I thank You for the songs that have been sung. I pray that they were glorifying to You the Scripture that was read, the prayers that were prayed. I pray, Father God, that as we go to the preaching of Your Word that it would be glorifying to You.
Father God, that You would help me this morning. I pray that You would help me, Father God, to preach Your Word, Lord, with the Spirit-given power, Father God, to preach it with love and with self-control.
I pray, Father God, that You would help me to preach boldly. Lord, that I would be nothing more than an instrument of Your use, Father God. I pray that for those that listen, Lord, that Your Word, as You say in Scripture, that Your Word would not return void, that each heart would be open to receiving and applying it, Father God, and I would apply it myself.
We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. So a couple of months ago, I think it's been a couple of months ago, we covered the first part of verse 7. In verse 7, Paul writes, For God gave us a spirit, not a fear.
You know, the verses from our text in that, so for God, go back to verse 6. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not a fear.
So the verses from our text this morning, they begin with a reminder. For Timothy to fan into flame the gift that he had been given by God. For Timothy to fan into flame that Timothy had been given a spirit of, not of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
The Gospel in Christ, when you read these Scriptures this morning, the Gospel in Christ are all throughout these Scriptures, all throughout these commands. In the last few sermons that I preached in Timothy, we've kind of strayed from the focus of what's going on behind the scenes in this letter, of Paul, this being his final letter, and the suffering and the imprisonment of Paul.
We're going to get back to that this morning, to that being kind of the background of what's going on. Paul, in a sense, is handing over the reins to Timothy, so that Timothy now will suffer more for the Gospel than he already has.
He's preparing Timothy for this. He's discipling Timothy. And then, like I said a couple of months ago, we covered the beginning of verse 7, for God gave us a spirit, not a fear. We discussed that there is more than one type of fear in the life of the believer, and more than one type of fear that we find mentioned in God's Word.
So what Paul meant by fear here, most Bible scholars will agree, Paul is addressing a fear that many times would result in timidity. And Timothy being timid. Timothy struggled with fear. He struggled with shrinking from duties at times.
We also see that in Corinthians. And being timid. And being timid is one of the ways that this fear can manifest itself. We see this in our world today. We see fear manifested in things such as fear and anxiety and worry.
And this is a response, many times, to the ongoings of life. One of the most unpleasant parts of this fallen world and this life that we live is the painful circumstances that we face. The tragedies of life, the truly tough times, or not knowing what the outcome will be, or when we're faced with hard outcomes, having to live with those hard outcomes.
We struggle with these things. They're a result of the fall of man. They're a result of the depravity of man. They're the result of the sin of man. But what was, if you remember, what was the remedy to this type of fear?
It was another type of fear. A fear of God. The God of the universe. A holy and a sovereign God that we believe is in complete control of the universe. He does as He wishes. He is almighty and has all power.
He is a God that through the working of the Holy Spirit gives power to believers to overcome their sinful fear. And then verse 7 continues, continuing on in verse 7, stating, God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love.
And some of your versions will say a sound mind or self-control. I want us to focus this morning on the first of these three gifts that is given by the Spirit to the believer. That is power. Power. You may say, what power?
Great physical strength or great influence. We see this power, this worldly power today. But no, I want to look at something much more powerful than that. Look with me to verse 8. What kind of power am I talking about?
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me as prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by what? By the power of God. The power of God. We could spend quite a bit of time this morning diving into everything that we see in Scripture about the power of God.
Or examples of the power of God on display. But this morning, for just a few moments, I want us to use the example of God's power that Paul uses here in our text. The power of God as displayed in the gospel.
And God working through the gospel. Look at me, let's read verses 9 and 10. Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
A powerful God with a powerful gospel. This power was great news to Timothy. And this power is great news to every believer. Why? Why is this great news? Because this power, the power of God as displayed through His gospel, is more powerful than anything Timothy would face, and more powerful than anything we face as followers of Christ.
It is more powerful than Timothy's and our shortcomings. And I want us to look this morning at six of those things or shortcomings. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I don't want to keep you here too long.
But I want to look at things all right here from our text. Six hindrances the gospel is more powerful than. The first one being this gospel is more powerful than our shame. Look with me at verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed.
He's telling Timothy not to be ashamed. Paul tells him, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. This does not mean necessarily that Timothy was already ashamed, but Paul was read there warning Timothy, don't be ashamed.
Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. What was he exhorting Timothy to not be ashamed of?
The gospel.
Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed even in the face of adversity, Timothy. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Paul had met resistance. He had met resistance from Jews and Gentiles who gave him resistance to the gospel.
Timothy would probably be met with the same resistance. The Romans would hate him. The Jews would hate him and might seek to kill him or might try to persuade Timothy to change the gospel as the Judaizers did.
Remember, theirs was faith plus works equals salvation. He's telling Timothy, don't be ashamed of the gospel. Preach and teach the true gospel. We have a sinful tendency to be ashamed of the gospel, to operate at times as though the gospel doesn't exist, to make it less defensive, to try to water down the offense of the gospel, to cower when we're challenged about the gospel, or this one, to put the main focus on things other than the gospel.
Things not as controversial. We can find something else to focus on other than the gospel, but Paul exhorts Timothy, don't be ashamed of the gospel. And then he goes a step further, not only to not be ashamed of the gospel, of the testimony of our Lord, but also, what does he say?
Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Don't be ashamed of Paul, his prisoner. He might be in chains, suffering as an evildoer. Paul was, but he was a prisoner for the sake of the gospel.
Timothy might be attempted to avoid association with Paul. That association might lead to Timothy also being arrested. You know, we find where Peter, why was he afraid when they took Christ? Because he was afraid they might take him too.
And he's telling Timothy, don't be afraid of the gospel. Don't be afraid or ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. We too often, in our sinful flesh, will cower when things get uncomfortable.
We are too often, we're ashamed of God, we're ashamed of our God, our Savior, and His glorious gospel. Why else do we not evangelize regularly? We are afraid of being shamed, or rejected. Or we're afraid of confrontation.
And it's not that we seek out confrontation, we don't seek out confrontation. But when it pertains to the commands of Scripture, and in this case, the proclamation of the gospel, we're not afraid of it either.
But too often we are ashamed. We have each been ashamed of the gospel and those who faithfully proclaim it. Each one of us has. Whether it be by not sharing the gospel or supporting those who do. My next question, how can the shame be overcome?
It's something that he's warning, he's telling Timothy, don't be ashamed. He's telling, we're reading, we are not to be ashamed.
But how?
How can we not be ashamed? Did Paul offer a remedy to this shame? Yes, he did. Look with me to verse 12. Which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed. So Paul says he's not ashamed. Look and see why he's not ashamed.
But 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 he has entrusted to me. How was Paul not ashamed? Or why was Paul not ashamed? He knew who he believed.
He knew in whom he had placed his faith. One commentator writes, Paul's word for the translation have believed utilizes a Greek perfect tense to emphasize that he had permanently put his trust and confidence in Christ and had been trusting Him since he was first born again and is trusting Him now in the face of impending death.
His faith was in Christ, his all-perfect and all-sufficient Savior. His faith was in God Almighty who is sovereign over all. Not only did he believe, but he was convinced in his belief. He said, I am convinced.
He was convinced that the divine power of God would preserve him. He was not worried about the one in whom he believed disappointing him. He wasn't worried in Christ disappointing him. He wasn't worried in God disappointing him.
Timothy needed to be convinced as Paul was. Paul, his mentor, was about to no longer be with him. But he needed to be convinced in who would be with him. That Christ would be with him. So how can we not be ashamed?
Well, one, because of this power that we find in the Gospel. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel. Romans 1 .16,. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Paul was willing to be stoned, to be beaten, to be thrown in jail, to be killed for preaching the Gospel. And in spite of all of that, Paul knew that. And in spite of all of that, he continued to preach the Gospel in face of opposition.
Because why? Because it was the Gospel not of Paul, but of Christ. It was a Gospel produced by Christ and proclaimed by Christ. And this Gospel is more powerful than that shame he might face in that cold prison cell.
This Gospel was more powerful. And whatever he faces because of that isn't in vain. His sufferings for that are not in vain. God works powerfully through His powerful Gospel. John Gill writes,. As it is a means made use by God in quickening dead sinners, enlightening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, softening hard hearts, and making of enemies friends.
Through this Gospel, God saves sinners. This power allows us to not be ashamed. As well as by knowing in whom we have believed. Knowing who we have believed. Trusting in Him that through every awkward conversation, every rebuke, every persecution that comes with living for Him and spreading His Gospel, we can trust in Him that He will sustain you.
Because we will suffer.
We will suffer.
Pastor Quatro preached on this a few weeks ago or a couple weeks ago on a Sunday night. We will suffer for the Gospel. We will be persecuted.
This is certain.
2 Timothy 3, if you were to flip over a page, verse 12 says, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But the power of God, it's greater than our shame. But the power of God is also greater than our suffering.
It's more powerful than our suffering. Paul suffered. Read verse, look at me with verse 12. Which is why I suffer as I do. Paul suffered. Why did he suffer? Go back to verse 11. For which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.
Why did he suffer? Not because he darkened the doors of the church. He did that. Not because he lived a quiet life for Christ. He did live a life for Christ and so must every Christian, but far from a quiet one.
Why did he suffer? Because he was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. Because he was spreading the gospel and people didn't like it. He suffered for the message he preached and taught. The message of truth.
That those apart from Christ are wicked and depraved and face the righteous judgment of God. And they must repent and trust in Christ. And for that he suffered. For the message that he proclaimed. This letter, we've talked about this for the last few months, but this letter was written with the central theme of suffering for the sake of the gospel.
Paul tells Timothy, not only would he suffer for the sake of the gospel, but what does he say? He had go so far as to tell Timothy to share in it. Embrace the suffering, Timothy. Don't run and hide from it.
Many today think they have embraced suffering for Christ when they have not. You can suffer for various things in this life, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're suffering for the gospel. People suffer for poverty.
People have suffered for various issues throughout history. Just because your life hasn't been easy doesn't mean you've suffered for the gospel. You can't suffer for the gospel without the gospel. Just because your Christian life hasn't been easy doesn't mean that you've suffered for the gospel.
Many people claim to be persecuted for the sake of the gospel, but they aren't even preaching or proclaiming or teaching the true gospel. Paul suffered because the message that he preached exposed the darkness of sinners.
He preached the Christ of the Bible, and they were going to kill him for it. He is telling Timothy to embrace the preaching of the gospel as well as the suffering that would come with it. This is countercultural in our day.
It was then and it is now. We run from suffering. We are afraid of suffering. We are in a world that focuses on making everything easier, a lot of which I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for air conditioning.
I'm thankful for cars. I'm thankful for that, you know, there's so many things in life that I... easy things that even my grandpa or those before didn't have. I'm thankful for those. But a lot of this has made us soft.
It's made us soft. We have taken this mentality into Christianity. Christians today are afraid to suffer. I wouldn't say that we go out and we look for opportunities that cause us pain, but we as Christians, especially in the West, have grown too used to comfortability.
Any threat to that comfortability must be avoided. Anything that is uncomfortable. And this has terribly affected the evangelical church in our day in many ways. I want to quickly look at three ways. Our comfortableness has affected us in these three ways.
One, it's affected the church's fellowship. We're afraid of awkwardness. We're people we don't like. It's just easier to avoid them. If I go to church with somebody and we just don't really get along that well, it's just so much easier for me to avoid them.
It's easier for me to come here, hear a sermon, say hello, and go home and live in isolation. Relationships take work and can be painful at times. But we're too busy for this. We're too comfortable for this.
It's affected the church's fellowship. It's affected the church's discipline. We're afraid of being the church that stands upon the truths of Scripture and actually reforms and conforms to what is written.
We'll be viewed as extremists. If we're obedient to the whole Bible. We don't want people to be challenged to be obedient to the Word. They may leave and not come back. It's affected our discipline. And it's affected the church's commission.
Our avoidance to suffering and being uncomfortable has severely hampered our evangelism. Our spreading of the gospel has suffered due to us being afraid of suffering. We don't want to be thought of as weird.
It's too awkward or uncomfortable to tell people that they are sinners in need of Christ. We've embraced keeping our mouths shut and living a quiet life. The problem is, is that's not the great commission of Christ to the church.
Matthew 28, 19, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Christian, if you are proclaiming and spreading the true gospel to the whole world, that means everyone, you will face rejection. You will suffer in some form or another. Ask any of these brothers that have went door to door with us.
There's some people that they welcome it. They say, man, I'm glad y 'all are out here. There's others that slam the door in their face. I've witnessed one of the brothers in here have a lady tell him she didn't need to be repented, he needed to get off her, she didn't need to repent of anything, she didn't have to ask for forgiveness to get off her property.
You'll face that. You will face rejection. It may not look exactly like Paul's suffering. You may not end up in a cold jail cell, you might. You can avoid, but one way you can for sure avoid suffering in this sense is by not proclaiming and obeying the truth.
As Pastor Quatro put it a couple of weeks ago, you can avoid suffering here on earth, or persecution here on earth, but if you avoid it here, you will face suffering by the wrath of God. The wrath of God being poured out upon.
Christian, don't avoid suffering. Heed the words of Paul. Join in the suffering for the gospel. Embrace it. How can we embrace suffering? I'll tell you very clearly, it is not by our merit or our might.
But what does he say? But share in the suffering, this is verse 8, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God. By the power of God and grace that is in Christ Jesus, He will give you grace in your suffering.
How can you not be ashamed? How can you share in the gospel? How? Because I'm strong enough. No, but because He is strong enough. The gospel of Christ is powerful enough. You are weak, I am weak, our efforts are weak.
My preaching is weak, our teaching is weak, our knocking on the doors, our efforts are weak. We suffer from sinful fear all too often, but we are not relying on self. We have within us the spirit of the living God, and the spirit does not give fear, but rather what does it give?
It gives power. Who does it give power to? To the weak, to those that have been born again, but to the weak, weak men and women who without the spirit have no power in and of themselves. I like this quote from Oswald Chambers, it says, God can achieve His purpose either through the absence of human power and resources or the abandonment of reliance on Him.
All through history, God has chosen and used nobodies because their unusual dependence on Him made possible the unique display of His power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.
There is a power that is greater than those that oppose you. Paul was imprisoned by the will of who? You may say, Caesar. Rome did want Paul in prison, but ultimately Paul was imprisoned by the will of God Almighty.
Look at verse 8. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Philemon 1 .1, Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus. And Timothy our brother to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker.
Ephesians 3 .1, for this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. He's writing from prison then again in Ephesians. Ephesians 4 .1, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called.
God was in control and Paul knew that and he rested in that. We can be at peace in our suffering for we know who holds all things together. He is sovereign over all and it is he who is at work. Romans 8 .28, for we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Even though we are imperfect and we still sin, God, he is more powerful than our shame, he's more powerful than our suffering, and this gospel is more powerful than our sin. Verse 9, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
Paul reminds Timothy that he was saved not by works, but by the power of God. For God's own purpose and grace you've been saved. Timothy was a sinner saved from God, by God, and for God. So are all who believe.
Timothy still was a sinner. We know he struggled with sinful fear. We've talked about that. We know that being a man, he sinned often. He had no righteousness of his own to offer God. Neither do we, for we too are sinners.
We fail more often than we would ever like to admit. We sin. But the gospel is greater than our sin. You are saved not because of your own worth. Look at the next part of verse 9. Not because of his own works, but because of his own purpose and grace.
For his own purpose and grace. It is through the gospel that believers are saved from the penalty of their sin. It is through the gospel that believers are justified by God, even though they are sinners.
We are not justified by our good works. We are justified by the work of Christ. Even though we are sinners, we can be justified. Through the gospel, sinners are enabled to repent and turn from their sins and trust upon Christ.
And through the gospel, we talked about it this morning in Sunday school, through the gospel and the working of the Spirit, believers are sanctified from their sin. They are progressively made holy. I love the way we listened to him on the way to church this morning.
Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Through his holy will, the sacrificial death of his Son and the working of the Holy Spirit, God brings sinners to repentance and uses them for his work and for his glory.
That's through the gospel. The gospel is more powerful than our sin and next it is more powerful than our strain. He tells Timothy, who saved us, called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
Verse 10, in which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality, to which through the gospel for which I am appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher.
Verse 12, which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am convinced he is able to guard until that day what he has entrusted to me. Verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me.
Paul tells Timothy to hold to and to follow the sound words he had heard from him. Timothy had heard the truth. Timothy had heard the true gospel. Now Paul is saying, follow that pattern. Follow the words you have heard from me.
Follow the true gospel. Follow that pattern of the faithful ones that had come before. The pattern that was based off of sola scriptura, scripture alone. Follow that pattern. Hold on to it. Don't stray to lies, Timothy.
There were many false gospels then and there are many false gospels now. We, church, would do well to heed Paul's words of following the pattern of the sound words he had given to Timothy. We don't need new and inventive.
We don't need cultural significant worship. We don't need to be cutting edge. We need to be biblical. We need to be biblical. We follow the sound pattern of those who have faithfully gone before, who have followed Paul as he followed Christ.
The pattern, that pattern is done with faith and love in Christ Jesus. We are only able to follow that pattern, to hold to it by the faith and love in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, by the working of the Spirit in our lives to strengthen us from our strain.
We are prone to wonder. So we must hold to the truth. And we must guard it. We must guard the truth. He tells Timothy to guard the truth. And although we are prone to be slack in our guarding, praise God that the gospel is not only more powerful than our straying, it is more powerful than our slackness.
Paul tells Timothy, he says guard. Guard what has been entrusted to you. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you. This is an active guarding of the good deposit. What is that good deposit? That good deposit is the gospel.
The gospel that so many throughout history have twisted. The gospel that so many today still twist. The gospel that is twisted behind pulpits each and every Sunday. The gospel that is twisted on social media.
The gospel that gets watered down. A lot of times by those who claim to be in the faith. Too often those in evangelical circles have failed to guard the gospel. Look at me with verse 14, that last verse we read.
By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Guard the gospel. 1 Timothy, in Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 6 verse 3 he writes,. If anyone teaches a different doctrine that does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
1 Timothy, if you go on, 1 Timothy 6 .20, we just read verse 14. What did he say? Guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 1 Timothy 6 .20, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.
Twice, twice, in both letters he tells Timothy, Guard the good deposit, Timothy. Guard what has been entrusted to you, Timothy. Church, we must guard the good deposit. There is a particular application to this for ministers as well as a general application to all Christians.
Speaking of the general application to all Christians first, as Christians, we have been entrusted with guarding the gospel and Christian doctrine in general. We'll get to preachers and teachers in a minute, but every Christian is accountable to knowing sound doctrine.
We have been given such a gift in His Word. It is the duty of all of us to know it. Matthew Henry writes,. It is committed to us to be preserved, pure and entire, and to be transmitted to those who shall come after us.
And we must keep it and not contribute anything to the corrupting of its purity, the weakening of its power, or the diminishing of its perfection. To effectively and truly guard that good deposit, we must know it.
We must know it. Why must we know it? Well, a few reasons. Because we find it in God's Word to us. The whole Bible is not the gospel, but the gospel is found within its pages. And if we find it here, then we know that it is true.
2 Timothy 3 .16, all Scripture is breathed out by God. The fact that it is breathed out by God tells us a few things. One, it is reliable, able to be trusted. It is inerrant. It is free from error. It is infallible.
Not only is it free from error, as the Word of God, it is incapable of having mistakes or being wrong. Never failing, always effective. We must know the Word of God. We must know the Bible. We must know it because the gospel.
We must know the gospel because the gospel speaks to who God and Christ are. Believers must know Christ and will want to know more and more of Him. John 17 .3, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Philippians 3 .8, indeed, I count everything as a loss. If you remember in this chapter, Paul lists out everything, all his great attributes, I guess you could say, that people have thought that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews and many other things.
But he said, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For this sake, I have suffered the loss of many things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ.
Don't mistake what I'm saying this morning to mean that by reading the Word you are saved or that just by reading the Word, then you know God personally. You do know more about Him. But rather, for the Christian, those who have been born again, we gain a deeper and more full understanding of God through the reading of Scripture and the understanding of the gospel.
We must know the gospel. For this is the gospel that changes believers. We are changed through the reading of Scripture. We are changed when we rightly understand the gospel. I've told you, I've used examples in my life.
When I began to really understand the gospel, it changed so much. It changed the way I preached. It became more real to me to understand what Christ really did on Calvary. Yes, He died a physical death, but He had the wrath of God Almighty poured out upon Him for sinners like me.
He took my place on Calvary. He took the punishment and the wrath of God that I deserved. When you understand the gospel, it changes your life. It changes you. The gospel changes a Christian. We are sanctified by His truth.
Pastor Croucher read this this morning, John 17, 17. Sanctify them in truth. Your Word is truth. And there's a minister element to this. I want to real quickly speak to this because there are ministers, there are preachers in here.
There are teachers in here. Timothy had been entrusted with the teaching and preaching of the glorious gospel of Christ. As a Christian, he was charged to guard the gospel, but even more so as a minister of the gospel.
For the gospel is that hidden treasure in a field that is worth selling everything for. A minister serves as a protector of his flock against false doctrines and the twisting of Scripture and the gospel.
Speaking of elders, Paul writes in Titus 1 .9, he must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
He ought to be able to contend those who teach a false gospel. How can he defend the faith without the knowledge of the truth of Scripture? How else does the minister know the truth except through Scripture, through the reading of Word?
One last quote from Gil. Rebuke, this is talking about the minister, rebuke such who resist the truth, oppose it to themselves, cavil at it, and object against it. These are to be refitted and convinced by the Scriptures and arguments taken from them.
What is he saying? You argue based upon Scripture, not our opinion, based upon Scripture and arguments taken from the Scriptures as the Jews were by Apollos. And nothing is so powerful to do it as sound doctrine and holding fast to the faithful Word.
Paul charges Timothy in chapter 3 to be equipped to preach the Gospel. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
He would not be complete or equipped without the Scriptures. It is absurd for a supposed minister of the Gospel of Christ to not read the Scriptures and be equipped by them. Use the gift you've been given to preach the Gospel.
2 Timothy 1 .6,. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you for the laying on of my hands. Chapter 4, he says in 2 Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by His appearing in His kingdom, preach the Word.
Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. He charges him to preach sound doctrine. We must know the Word to do this. In church, coming back to you, I'm not a preacher.
I'm not a teacher. Coming back, the church holds the responsibility of holding the minister accountable to the Word and rightly teaching it. We listed a few reasons why Christians should know the Bible.
Here's another one. How can you know if a preacher is rightly handling the Word of truth without knowing the Word yourself? This Word and the Gospel does not belong to Timothy. It does not belong to us.
It belongs to God. It is His Word spoken in a specific way. The Gospel within the Word is God's Gospel. And we as Christians have no right to take this Word and do whatever we want with it. That is the way of those who are not in Christ.
Many today twist the Word to fit their lifestyles in hopes that they'll avoid condemnation. They twist the Gospel for various reasons. This is not new, but just as then, it is done to their own destruction.
Preachers, teachers of the Word, must take extreme care to guard what they have been entrusted with. That's why in James, he says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Timothy. He knew that Timothy would not be popular for preaching the true Gospel.
Why?
In chapter 4, he says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachings to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth to wander off into myths.
People are the same today. Many will hate you for sharing the true Gospel and the true Christ. They hate the thought that He is Lord, and they are not. But this guarding cannot be done without the working of the Holy Spirit in both the Christian and the minister.
Christian, guard what you have been taught. Guard the Gospel, knowing that you are not relying on your own strength. If you were, you would be miserable. But rather, God is for you in guarding the sound doctrine of the Word.
He is for you in guarding of the Gospel. How can it be guarded the same way that Paul guarded it? Verse 12, which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed for I know Him. I have believed and I am convinced that who?
He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me by trusting the deposit with Christ. That's how we guard it. For centuries, there have been those who have sought to change the Gospel or do away with it altogether.
This has been done by trying to destroy its message, trying to distort its message, as well as trying to shut up and kill its messengers. Kings and entire governments have sought out with a goal, have went out with a goal of eliminating the Gospel.
Governments that had all the world's devices at their fingertips. And guess what, church? They have failed. They have failed. The Gospel has prevailed. Where we have failed to guard it, where we have been slack in this, the Holy Spirit has preserved it.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, the true Gospel has been preserved and guarded. And because of that power, there are men this morning standing behind pulpits, faithfully preaching the Word of God. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit, because God has guarded it. God has saw it through all the adversity, all those that tried to shut it up. Guard the Gospel, church. Don't surrender. But even when you fail and feel like you can't go on, and you can't press forward, lastly, in conclusion, remember that the Gospel is more powerful than our surrender.
We are prone to give up. We are prone to give in. When things get tough, we start reaching for the towel. We start waving that white flag of surrender. Many times as a pastor, I've given up where I should have kept going.
Many times, we have all given up when things have gotten too tough. But by the grace of God, we are here today. By the power of the Gospel, we are here. The working of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel that saves us, sanctifies us, and keeps us.
You wouldn't be a Christian, you wouldn't persevere in your faith without that Gospel. The Gospel is more powerful. The Gospel is greater than all these that we've mentioned. It's more greater than our shame.
It's greater than our suffering, our sin, our strain, our slackness, and our surrender. Unbeliever though, I want to talk to you, if you say, I've not been born again. I haven't trusted in Christ. Unbeliever, you have no power over any of these.
That can only be found in Christ. You have not been given by the Spirit this power. You stand at odds with God, and you will face His righteous wrath if you remain in that state. What must you do?
Repent.
Repent and believe the Gospel. Put your trust in Christ. And believer, I'll leave you with this, don't lose hope. We will fail in all of these areas. Run to Christ. Run to Christ, for He is for you in this.
He is an all-powerful God with an all-powerful Gospel. Let us pray. Father God, we are so thankful for You. We're so thankful for Your Gospel. Lord, we are dependent upon You. We are dependent upon Your grace and Your mercy.
We are dependent upon this Gospel. Lord, and in all of these areas where we fail, we know that Your Gospel is greater. Help us to seek, to walk closer with You. Help us, Lord, to love Your Word and know Your Gospel and desire to guard it.
Father God, help each believer in here to see, Lord, that their dependence on You needs to be increased. We must depend upon You more. Lord, and for the unbeliever, I pray that Lord, through the working of Your Spirit, that they would repent and trust in You.
We ask all these things in Christ Jesus.