WWUTT 723 Final Instructions and Greetings?

Final Instructions to Timothy and the Warning Against False Teachers

There will be times where we will have to call out false teachers and name them in order to warn the body of Christ. But as Paul had instructed Timothy in this, we must do it with gentleness and respect, for it is God who grants repentance when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. And now the thrilling conclusion of our study in 2nd Timothy. We'll be in chapter 4 today and I'll start where I began yesterday in verse 14 and go to the end of the chapter. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.

The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first offense, 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 I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Priscia and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

Erastus remained at Corinth and I left Trophimus who was ill at Miletus. Do your best to come to me before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you as do Putins and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. So as we talked about yesterday, there are occasions in which false teachers will need to be named. And here Paul names one such false teacher, Alexander the coppersmith.

Whatever his teaching was, we don't know, but we know that he strongly opposed the mission of the apostles to proclaim the gospel and likely was a man who is in Troas. So as Timothy was going there to retrieve Paul's cloak, he would likely come across this man or maybe Alexander would hear that Timothy was there and become an adversary to him.

And so Timothy must be warned and likewise warn the brothers to beware of Alexander the coppersmith. If you've listened to when we understand the text for any length of time, you know that I've called out teachers through this broadcast and warned you about those who are false.

I've done it through my blog. It's even been in the videos. In fact, I'm finishing a video right now in which another false teacher is named Gandhi, the famous civil rights leader from India. There is a popular quote attributed to Gandhi in which he supposedly said to a group of Christian missionaries, I like your Christ.

I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. There are a couple of problems with this quote, though. First of all, is that Gandhi did not actually like the Christ of the Bible.

Gandhi had his own version of Jesus that he liked that meshed a little bit better with his Hinduism, but he did not believe that Jesus Christ was the only son of God. In fact, earlier this year, just a couple of months ago, there was a letter, a very rare letter that Gandhi wrote to a Christian minister in the United States.

And it is the only known letter in which Gandhi mentioned Jesus Christ and his belief about Christ and Gandhi very explicitly says in the letter that he thinks Jesus is only a great teacher, but he doesn't think of him more highly than that.

To put it more specifically, he does not believe Jesus is the son of God. And he goes on to tell this minister, isn't it better for us not that we find a commonality in one creed or confession, but that we can respect one another for our different creeds and confessions?

And that's how we will come to unity. So Gandhi outright rejected that Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the father except through Jesus, according to Christ's own claim in John.

Fourteen, six. Gandhi claimed to be a student of the Sermon on the Mount. I would say he didn't understand it, though there were just certain quotes that he liked Jesus saying he would take out of context to fit his peace narrative, you know, things like turn the other cheek or love your enemy.

But he did not actually submit to the authority of Christ as the son of God. So you can rightly conclude because Gandhi did not like the Christ of the Bible. Of course, he wouldn't have any high regard for any Christian who came along saying that you had to repent of your sin.

You had to flee from Hinduism and worship Jesus Christ and be saved. Gandhi would not have agreed with such a message. So for him to say, I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. He never actually liked Christ.

So that's the first problem with the quote. The second problem is that Gandhi never said it. The quote actually comes from a guy named Baradatta. At least that's that was what he was called. And somehow it just got attributed to Gandhi.

But he never actually made a comment like this, even though it continues to be repeated as coming from Gandhi. I've found evidence of it being in The Washington Times. Relevant magazine has referenced it multiple times.

But relevant is not really all that relevant. And there are even many Christian teachers who've repeated this in their own books, including Lee Strobel, Ravi Zacharias, Mark Middleburg. I read from one person quoting Jen Hatmaker using the quote.

The problem with that is that they're referencing a man. And again, Gandhi never actually said it. I think Gandhi's name got attached to it to give it more credibility. But they're referencing a guy who did not like Jesus.

And yet he's making a comment about how he doesn't like how many Christians don't act like Jesus, when the reality is for Gandhi, they're not acting like his version of Jesus. So by referencing this quote, it's actually a slander against the church.

Yes, there are certainly times when people who call themselves Christians don't act like Christians. And the Bible even gives us instructions on how we're supposed to confront brothers and sisters in the Lord who are in wrongdoing.

Then there are people out there who call themselves Christians who are just clearly not. And you should not be making an accusation against the church because of the way somebody who isn't actually a Christian is behaving just because they called themselves a Christian.

You also have the subjective side of this attached to this whole dilemma, where in the case of a person like Jen Hatmaker, Jen believes that anybody who would deny two men from getting married to one another is being un-Christ-like.

So when she makes a comment about Christians not acting Christ-like, in her perspective, the church should be marrying gay people. That's the way she believes. So subjectively, in her mind and who she thinks Christ is, Christians who are Orthodox aren't Christ-like.

So you have that subjective element that's in that as well. So how is it that we should address these issues whenever we see a Christian or a group of people who are not acting in a Christ-like way? Well, we confront these things according to the scripture.

We go to what the Bible says, not made-up quotes from guys who did not like Jesus. And in 1 Peter 4, Peter says the following. This is in verse 12. So in other words, if somebody is going to ridicule you and make fun of you for your behavior, let it be because you proclaim the gospel.

Not because you were acting like a jerk. Not because you were behaving in some immoral and evil way that even in the eyes of the world is deplorable behavior. But that you behaved in such a way that was according to what the word of God says.

And I mean, the world is going to hate you for that. As we've read from the Apostle Paul telling Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The world is going to hate you just for desiring godliness.

So let that be the reason that they hate you and not because you were acting like a jerk to people. As Peter said earlier in this chapter, the Gentiles want to live in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

And with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them within the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So it is not for you to ridicule those who ridicule you. The Lord will take care of that situation. We must entrust ourselves to him who judges justly. And that is what Paul says here to Timothy as well.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 4, he warns Timothy about Alexander the coppersmith who did him great harm. And then he goes on to say the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Paul is not seeking vengeance against Alexander, nor is he warning Timothy about Alexander as though to say, ha, see, I got the last word.

I have immortalized Alexander in the pages of scripture forever. You know, that's that's not Paul's approach to this at all, but that Timothy would simply be warned and avoid him and that he would warn the other brothers and sisters in Christ as well.

This is sometimes going to be a requirement of a pastor to have to call out false teachers and warn the body of Christ against those who are trying to lead Christians astray. After we get done with this book, we're going to Titus, and it's there in Titus 1 9, where it says that a pastor must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught and also rebuke those who contradict it.

Sometimes that's going to require naming names. Jesus did it. He did it even in view of the whole public when he called out the Pharisees for their false teaching and leading people astray and afflicting people with a burden that they could not bear the burden of the law that the Pharisees said you had to keep perfectly in order to get to heaven.

But Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Christ has fulfilled the law and the prophets, and by faith in him, we have salvation.

And so calling out those false teachers is going to be anybody that maligns the gospel that tries to teach a different gospel or teach a different way to peace or eternal life. We find salvation only in Christ alone.

If anybody would speak ill of us, the Lord will repay them for their deeds. And may we continue to entrust ourselves to God who said, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. So we go on here to verse 15.

Paul again says to Timothy, beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. Verse 16, at my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them.

And I mentioned that yesterday. This is reminiscent of words that we read from Jesus in the book of Luke from the cross. When those who were ridiculing him, those who had hung him there even continued to make fun of him as he was hanging there and dying.

And yet Jesus said from the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And and we can rightly assume that some of the people who were there on the hillside that day who saw all of this happening and heard those words from Jesus mouth, there would come a time in which they would repent of their sins and believe in him as the son of God.

And so likewise, Paul here saying about those who deserted him and did not stand by him, he doesn't hold any grudge against them and doesn't think that anyone else should either, but that they would repent.

That would be between them and the Lord. And they would continue to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling and continue to be good servants to the work of the gospel. Paul says in verse 17, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.

And this would be a testament to Timothy as well as Timothy was going to no doubt face some serious persecutions there in Ephesus. That was where Timothy would eventually be martyred. And Timothy would know that God would stand with him and give him the strength that he needs to have courage and endure in the face of persecution.

God has done this for Paul and is standing with Paul even now as he is in this prison cell awaiting his execution, awaiting his martyrdom. So he says, 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.

Remember from Acts chapter nine, after Paul had his conversion experience, the Lord spoke to Ananias and said that Paul was going to be his servant to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. This was Paul's primary mission as the the apostle who was untimely born, as Paul described himself in first Corinthians 15, that he would be an apostle to the Gentiles.

And indeed, we read in Galatians chapter one, as Paul kind of shares a a mini autobiography of his conversion. He said, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

They only were hearing it said he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me. But Paul does not take any personal credit for that.

He gives all the glory to the Lord for saving him from the wickedness that he was in, putting the followers of Jesus Christ to death and giving him such grace that he would become an apostle to the Gentiles traveling further than any of the other apostles had traveled and facing even more persecutions for the cause of Christ so that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. Paul says the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed there. There were plenty of times when Paul could have died. God rescued him. And even now, as Paul knows, he is about to go to his death because he's previously said this to Timothy in chapter four, verse six, I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

And the time of my departure has come. This is a lot different than something that Paul said to the Philippians. He said he was confident that the spirit would release him from the prison that he was in so that he might be able to come to the Philippians.

That was during his first imprisonment in Rome. But now here in this next imprisonment, he knows he's not getting out of this one alive. The spirit has maybe told him that this is it. This is now the end of his ministry and the end of his life.

And he is ready to go. So though there have been times that Paul has been rescued from the lion's mouth, he's previously been rescued from execution. Even now that he is about to face his end, the Lord will rescue him from every evil deed.

Likewise, Paul will be rescued from temptation. He knows that he is not going to to suddenly abandon the truth of the gospel at the moment that he is about to be executed. But the Lord will rescue him even from the temptation of denying Christ and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

And here Paul proclaims the glory of God, not his own glory, not thump in his own chest for all he has accomplished over the course of his ministry and his life. But he concludes this section by saying to him, be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. And a reminder once again that that word amen means so be it. And here we get to the final greetings of this letter. In verse 19, Paul says, greet Priscia and Aquila. And this is well, Priscia is just a different spelling of Priscilla.

So this is the same Priscilla and Aquila that ministered with Paul at Ephesus. They were tent makers by trade. So they did the bivocational work with Paul and also went out and proclaimed the gospel. The first time that we see Apollos in Acts chapter 18 is when Priscilla and Aquila corrected his incomplete understanding of the gospel of Christ.

And so this is that same Priscilla and Aquila living there in Ephesus. And so as Titus is ministering in Ephesus, Paul says, send them greetings on my behalf. He also says, and the household of Onesiphorus.

Now, we don't really know that much about Onesiphorus. His name is mentioned only twice. And both mentions are here in Second Timothy. The first mention was in chapter one. And then here at the close of the letter, Onesiphorus had refreshed Paul, as he said in chapter one, verse 16, when he was in prison and was not ashamed of my chains.

So we know this man was a blessing to the apostle in some way. Next verse, verse 20, Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill at Miletus, probably updating Timothy on the circumstances of a couple of other missionaries who were with him at the time that Paul may have been arrested and was then taken to Rome.

So if Timothy was going to be through Miletus, check on Trophimus while you're there. Verse 21, do your best to come to me before winter, urging Timothy more strongly as he has in a couple of other places here.

Eubulus sends his greetings to you, as do Prudence and Linus and Claudia and all of the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit, grace be to you. And thus we come to the conclusion of our study of the book of Second Timothy.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.