WWUTT 676 Remember Jesus Christ?

As Paul commissioned Timothy to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was important that Timothy preached the right

Christ, the right gospel. And so likewise, it's important that we believe in the true

Christ of the Bible when we understand the text. Many of the

Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Continuing our study of 2

Timothy chapter 2, I'm going to begin reading in verse 8. The Apostle Paul writes to his servant

Timothy, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which

I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound.

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

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

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

At the start of this, Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, and not just any

Jesus Christ, but very specifically the Christ of Paul's gospel. That's exactly what he's talking about here.

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which

I am suffering. The gospel that Paul preached, or the way that he preached the gospel rather, is what we read in the book of Luke.

So when we read the gospel of Matthew, we read Matthew's gospel. That was the way that Matthew would have preached that gospel, and there were probably some other apostles who preached it like that as well.

Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience, and so the way that he begins his gospel is by showing that Jesus Christ is the offspring of Abraham, and is the heir to the throne of David.

That's why we have that genealogy that begins the book of Matthew that way. So as most of the apostles were going out and preaching first to the

Jews, you have that genealogical record that is given there to show that Jesus Christ is the one who was prophesied would come from the line of Abraham and the throne of David to be the

King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Mark's gospel is the gospel the way that Peter preached it, because John Mark was writing what

Peter preached basically, and it is primarily to a Gentile audience. So you've probably heard the controversy about Mark in priority, meaning that Mark was the first gospel that was written, and then

Matthew came later, and then I think it was Luke, and then John was much later than that. So if you heard that controversy about the gospels before, that is entirely based upon the fact that Mark is shorter and does not have much of a resurrection narrative at the end of his gospel.

But then Matthew is much longer, and you have an entire chapter dedicated to the resurrection, which is

Matthew 28. And so there are some who think that the gospel was evolving.

And so Mark's gospel is much shorter, and then Matthew expounds on it even more, and then Luke contains even more details, and then

John is even separated from the synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic, which is a word that means the same.

And then John was kind of giving his own testimony of the gospel that he witnessed as the apostle

John. But I don't really buy that explanation of the gospels. I think Matthew was first.

I really think that was the first one, because before the apostles went out to the

Gentiles, they were preaching where? Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, according to that commission that Jesus gave in Acts chapter one.

So since they were preaching first to the Jews before they went to the Gentiles, I think that's the reason why not only

Matthew comes first in canon, but is also why Matthew was the first gospel.

Then as the gospel was going out from there to the Gentiles, then you have it the way Peter preached it. So remember, he went to the house of Cornelius and preached, responding to a vision from the

Lord that he would also preach to the Gentiles. And so as Peter was reaching out to Gentiles, Mark was writing down the gospel the way that Peter preached it.

And then Paul would go even farther out than the rest of the apostles would go. And he would become that messenger to the

Gentiles as commissioned by God, as Jesus said to Ananias in Acts chapter nine.

So Luke, who was Dr. Luke, he was one of the fellow missionaries with Paul as he listened to Paul preach this gospel.

That's what he wrote down. And he wrote down a record of that gospel, which he he sent to Theophilus.

So the gospel of Luke is like a letter that was sent to Theophilus. And then the book of Acts is the record on how that gospel made it to the world, which again was written to Theophilus.

So Theophilus had this record of the gospel and also how the gospel was preached to the whole world in the books of Luke and Acts, both written by Luke.

So this was the gospel, the way that Paul preached it, what we have in the book of Luke. And just like there's a genealogy in Matthew, there's also a genealogy of Christ in Luke.

Now the two genealogies are not exactly the same because both writers have different intentions with the genealogy as they chronicled it.

So Matthew was attempting to show a genealogy of royal succession that went from Abraham to David and then ultimately to Mary and Joseph to show that Christ is the one who is the inheritor of the throne of David.

Whereas in Luke, the genealogy that we read there is it starts with Adam.

So Matthew started with Abraham, Luke starts with Adam, and Matthew was showing how

Jesus is the heir to the throne of David. Primarily, that's what he was after. And he also puts things together in groups of 14.

So you had 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the deportation of Babylon, and then 14 generations from the deportation of Babylon to the birth of Christ.

Whereas Luke is a little bit more precise, and he goes all the way back to Adam to show that Jesus is the promised seed.

Because it was there in the Garden of Eden that we have the Proto -Evangelion, the first declaration of the gospel.

When God said to the serpent, Genesis 3 .15, I will put enmity between your offspring and the offspring of the woman.

And this was the promise of a Messiah who was going to come through the seed of the woman.

And, of course, that would end up being Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin. So Luke's genealogy is more precise, traces it from Adam all the way down to the birth of Christ.

There are some that used to try to explain the differences in the genealogies as being Matthew's genealogy was

Joseph's line, but Luke's genealogy was Mary's line. And I don't think many scholars really use that explanation anymore, because really it isn't true.

Matthew and Luke had different objectives in the genealogy that they laid out, where Matthew kind of seemed to be following a royal line more than Luke was following.

So anyway, with the genealogy that you have there, even in the gospel of Luke, Paul is showing that Jesus is the promised seed.

This is the promised Messiah, the one who was coming from the line of Noah and Shem all the way down through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to Judah, to David, to Mary and Joseph.

And so here is our promised seed whom God had promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden would come and deliver people from the schemes of Satan.

So Paul here, talking to Timothy, says, remember Jesus Christ, the true Christ that I talked about in my gospel, the one who is risen from the dead, the one who is the offspring of David.

And these are all essential issues that we understand Christ is the one who came back from the grave.

For as Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, you are still dead in your sins and your faith is futile.

It means nothing if Christ has not come back from the grave. So this is part of declaring the gospel, the good news that Jesus not only died for your sins, he conquered death and came back again from the grave so that all who believe in him will know that they likewise will rise again from the grave.

So remember Jesus Christ, the Jesus I preached about, who by eyewitness testimony and confirmation from the scriptures was risen from the dead.

He is the offspring of David. We're not talking about some other Jesus, which actually was a common name.

His Hebrew name was Joshua, Yeshua. And then the pronunciation of that name changed just to kind of set him apart from all other

Yeshuas. And the name Christ was added to it as well, Christ which means Messiah.

So he is the deliverer, the Messiah who was sent to redeem us from sinfulness and give us his righteousness,

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, the one who was prophesied about.

So Paul making sure that Timothy understands we're preaching about the right Christ. And I kind of have to wonder here if some

Gnostic teaching was beginning to take hold at this particular time that Paul wrote this letter and you had the

Gnostics believing that they were privy to some unrevealed knowledge that God would just kind of give it to them in their minds.

It's not written down in scriptures. It's special knowledge that's been given to me. And so then they start talking about things that were separate from the gospel, falling into myth and speculation.

And they were deviating from the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul says, remember the true

Christ, the one who is risen from the dead, the one who in my gospel I showed is the offspring of David.

And so even today, we've got religions in the world that present a false Christ. And even as I talk about this, you probably have some of those religions that come to your mind.

Mormonism preaches a different Jesus. Yeah, they talk about Jesus Christ and they will say that the

King James Bible is the word of God. But insofar that it's translated correctly, the

Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. And it says that right there on the

Book of Mormon, another testament of Christ Jesus. That right there is an admission on the cover of the

Book of Mormon. This is a different gospel. And Paul said to the Galatians, Galatians 1, 8, and 9, if anybody comes to you preaching a different gospel, if even we were to come back to you again and we preached a different gospel than we preached to you the first time, if an angel from heaven were to appear and give you a different gospel, he is accursed.

And Mormonism is a different gospel. They preach about a completely different Jesus, one who is the literal son of divine celestial sex between heavenly father and heavenly mother.

They had another son, too. His name was Lucifer. Jesus and Satan in Mormonism are literally brothers.

But God liked Jesus' plan for redeeming mankind better than Satan's. And so he said, we're going to go with Jesus' plan.

And Satan rebelled because God didn't like his plan. And the angels or the spirits that went with him that inhabited human bodies on earth, they became black people.

But those who were the obedient spirits to God in heaven, they became white and delightsome, a very racist religion, apart from being a different gospel.

If they talk about a different Jesus, then his death on the cross is a different atonement.

If it's a different atonement, then you are still dead in your sins. And believing in a different Jesus, you will not be saved.

Mormonism saves no one. It is heresy and it is to be completely avoided.

It's not just enough that you worship somebody or something called

Jesus Christ. You must know the true Christ of the Bible and have heard the true gospel, having turned from your sins and worshiped the true

God, and then you will be saved. So this is why Paul so emphatically states with Timothy that you remember

Jesus Christ. You cannot do any good for anybody preaching anything other than the gospel that comes from Christ.

Remember Jesus Christ. Social justice is not going to save anybody.

Even blocking an abortion clinic to keep women from going in and having their children murdered by the hands of Planned Parenthood, that actually doesn't save anybody.

Because you might give them a comfortable life, but if it's not accompanied with the gospel, they are just sitting in a comfortable chair for the rest of their earthly existence before they stand before God and receive his judgment and are condemned to hell.

A person needs the gospel to be saved so that they would repent of their sin and worship

Christ. So Paul says, remember Jesus Christ. This gospel is the one that has the power to save.

Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. And because he was risen from the dead, we know that we will be risen from the dead.

He is the offspring of David. He is the one who was prophesied according to the scriptures, was going to come and save his people from their sins.

He was going to take the sins and iniquities of his people upon himself. And it pleased

God to crush him. And by his stripes, we are healed as it's talked about through the prophet

Isaiah. This was all preached in my gospel, Paul said, for which

I am suffering. Even that is an evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel that he proclaimed.

Why would I have given up my rock star status as a Pharisee to go through this and be persecuted and ultimately meet my end in death if I did not know it was true?

I saw the risen Lord on the road to Damascus who appeared to me and spoke to me and appointed me by his own will to be an apostle to the nations.

And it's because I have known these things and believe them and preach the truth.

That's why I'm suffering. I'm being bound with chains as a criminal. I am bound.

But then he goes on to say, the word of God is not bound. It has gone forth and it is still going forth.

Even as Paul is in prison, the gospel is still spreading. It was not dependent upon Paul and the words that he said.

Paul was actually a very meek man and he was not strong in speech as I'm teaching about with my congregation right now as we're going through Second Corinthians.

And so the success of the gospel was not dependent upon Paul. Even as he is in prison and he is bound, the gospel is not bound.

It's still spreading around the world. Folks, a church cannot be built around the identity of the pastor or the success of some kind of curriculum or program that has come from that particular church.

The success and the thrivingness of a church has to be upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So when that pastor leaves, that church is still there. Or when that program is no longer being offered by that church, the people are still gathering to praise

God and hear the gospel proclaimed. When that building isn't there anymore, like say they built some giant building, but now they no longer have the numbers to sustain it or continue to pay those bills.

Even when that building goes away, that church is still there proclaiming Christ and worshiping him because they are built on the foundation of the gospel and not the identity of a pastor or a personality or something like that.

And so the gospel, Paul is saying here, was not dependent upon him. Even as he is bound in chains, the gospel is still going forth.

Therefore, verse 10, I endure everything for the sake of the elect. I am doing this so that those whom

God had elected from before the foundation of the world would hear the gospel and believe it, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

And I talked about this last week as I kind of gave a prelude to Titus and Titus 1 .1, where Paul says there that he does all of this for the sake of the faith of God's elect.

Why do we preach the gospel? For the sake of God's elect, that those whom God had elected for salvation would hear the gospel and they would turn from sin and believe it, which is how a person is saved.

Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. God has predestined that this person is going to be saved and so he is therefore predestined the means and the manner by which they would come into salvation.

The very person that would come their way preaching the gospel to them so that they would repent and believe.

God has made you a partner in this work of ministry that he had planned from the foundation of the world.

And so since he has commissioned you to be a carrier of this message as part of this plan, therefore rejoice in God that he's included you in this plan and obey him and go forth and share the gospel with others.

Paul says, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

The saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. As Jesus told his disciples, they who endure to the end will be saved.

If we deny him, he will also deny us. As Christ said, if you deny me before men,

I will deny you before my father. But if we are faithless, if we stumble in sin and unrighteousness, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

All believers still sin and God is faithful and will pardon, restore and preserve those who are truly his.

They will not be snatched out of his hand. Eternally secure as Jesus promised in John's gospel.

Let us conclude with prayer. Our wonderful God and heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel that had been delivered to us for you ordained that this would happen.

You put on the lips of the person that would preach to us the words that we needed to hear to convict our hearts and turn us from sin to the righteousness of Christ that we would desire to live as Christ and so receive the gift of eternal life.

So preserve us that we may endure the trials and tribulations of this world in the world, but not of it.

Always looking to Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the perfecter of it so that we might receive the treasure and the reward that we have been promised in him.

Thank you for this wonderful day. And may we see everything that comes our way as another opportunity to worship

God and serve you. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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