WWUTT 677 As Preached in My Gospel?

Our faith in Christ must be exclusive, because if we believe in Jesus plus something else for salvation, you're actually placing your faith in the other thing to save you, instead of Christ, when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. As with yesterday, I want to come to 2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 8 and reading through verse 13.

The apostle Paul writes, 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 also will live with him.

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

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

It's that statement there in verse 8 I want to come back to again today, where Paul says, Remember Jesus Christ.

And as I talked about yesterday, Paul is telling Timothy, remember the true Christ. Don't settle for an imitation

Jesus or who somebody else says that Jesus was or is.

But remember the one who was risen from the dead, the one who was specifically traced through the scriptures as being of the offspring of David, the one who was preached about in my gospel.

In other words, preach the gospel that has the seal of apostolic authority on it.

Not just the one Paul preached, but the one that Peter preached, the one that John preached, the one that was preached by Matthew, and on and on it goes.

That which has come through the apostles, those whom Christ had appointed to take the gospel to Jerusalem and to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Preach the true gospel and settle for no imitation. Don't let anything else even get mixed in with the truth of the gospel, because then otherwise if you say that there's something else that you need and the gospel is not enough, then the gospel becomes powerless.

For you convey in your message that I need the gospel plus this other thing in order to achieve the power of God for salvation.

And we've seen this come up in the Bible before of people trying to use Christianity, but also these other beliefs.

I'm just trying to keep all my bases covered. That way I know that when I die, hey, one of these has got to be right.

One of these is going to secure my salvation for eternity, correct? But if you're placing faith in anything else other than God or God and then you do not trust in God and that will be to your detriment.

It will not save you, but it will lead to you hearing on that day of judgment, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

I never knew you. Let's go to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 19. We read the story of the seven sons of Sceva starting in verse 11,

God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them in the evil spirits came out of them.

Now beware any person who's trying to imitate this technique here in Acts chapter 19, claiming that they have some kind of special cloth and if you send them a donation, they'll drop that cloth in the mail to you so that you can receive it and rub it on your ailments and then be cured.

I believe Robert Tilton tried this also. He was and still is a fraud.

So do not believe any false teacher who claims that they have the same power that Paul was granted here as he was doing this work in Ephesus.

It is God who is working through Paul to show to the people that the message he carried was from God for no one could do the things that Paul was doing except somebody who was sent by the

Lord. This is this is not a miraculous ability that anybody today has with these miraculous prayer cloths or, you know, something that they wipe their sweat on that will have magical powers that will heal somebody of all their diseases.

That's not the way that works. This was something that was specific for Paul in the time and place in which he was ministering.

So let's go on in verse 13. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the

Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. So their itinerant exorcists, they they went around from town to town just kind of doing this thing which they weren't really achieving.

They weren't actually casting out evil spirits. They were just pretending that they were, which you'll you'll see in just a moment what happens to them when they actually encounter an evil spirit.

So as they were casting out evil spirits, here's what they would say. I adjure you by the

Jesus whom Paul proclaims. So they were even using the name of the

Lord Jesus to do this little parlor trick of theirs and con the people into believing that they were actually casting out evil spirits.

They use the name of Jesus. Furthermore, I might also add they use the name of the correct

Jesus. They use the name of Christ, the one whom Paul proclaimed, which is the correct

Jesus. But in their hearts, they did not truly believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God, nor did they put their faith in Christ only.

But they had faith in Christ plus some of these other things. We'll see some of those other things come about here.

Verse 14, seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Scava were doing this.

But the evil spirit answered them. So here's what happens when they finally encounter a real evil spirit.

The evil spirit answered them. Jesus, I know, and Paul, I recognize.

But who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

And this became known to all of the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And watch what happened here.

Fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

In other words, it was held in high regard. It was revered where previously it wasn't.

These men, the seven sons of Scava, were using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain.

They were using it to gain popularity for themselves. They knew Paul had become popular by preaching the name of Christ, so they tried to invoke the name of Jesus themselves.

But it wasn't genuine, for they did not actually have faith in Christ and they did not have faith in Christ alone.

As we see when we go on, verse 18, also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found that it came to 50 ,000 pieces of silver.

Or in other words, in another translation might put it this way, 50 ,000 days wages was the combined total value of all of these scrolls that were gathered together and burned in public there in Ephesus.

Verse 20, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

These new believers displayed that they believed the gospel that Paul preached, but they also believed all these other things.

They believed all this mysticism that they had put their faith in these pagan practices, this witchcraft and voodoo and sorcery, all of these things that were bound up in these scrolls and incantations that they had, which they then burned because they realized none of this stuff has the power to save us because we were calling on the name of Christ and doing all these other things.

And that wasn't enough. An evil spirit comes along who says, yeah, I know Christ. I don't know who you are and and puts his his wicked, you know, demon jujitsu on us.

And we're totally powerless to overcome the power of these demons. We realize now that this hodgepodge of faith believes that we had put together is powerless.

It doesn't achieve anything. We must place our faith in Christ alone.

And then it was his word, God's word, verse 20, that continued to increase and prevail.

In other words, it had all the power and people place their faith in that word.

No other word could satisfy and no other word could accomplish what

God's word accomplished. So we see here that it's not simply enough to call upon the name of Christ.

It's not even simply enough to call upon the right name of Christ. As I as I talked about yesterday, we must know

Jesus and not just any Jesus, not the Mormon Jesus, not the Jehovah's Witness Jesus, but the true

Jesus of the Bible. Furthermore, it takes more than just calling upon the name of the right

Jesus. You must truly have faith in that Jesus and not faith in all these other things plus Jesus, or you have not actually put your faith in Christ.

That's what we see here in this story with the sons of Sceva in Acts chapter 19.

And it's one of the things I believe that Paul is instructing Timothy in in second

Timothy chapter two, verse eight. Remember Jesus Christ. Now, you might think it interesting that Paul has to say this to Timothy, his pastor, that he's had there in Ephesus for some time now.

At the moment that Paul is writing Timothy this letter, Timothy's been there in Ephesus for a couple of years.

Paul is summoning Timothy to come to him in Rome, where he's in prison before he is to be executed.

And so Paul has had Timothy there in Ephesus. If Timothy's there preaching the gospel, why does

Paul have to remind Timothy to remember Jesus Christ? Well, I believe there are two answers to this question, and neither one of them is well because Timothy was starting to go astray.

That's not why Paul had to say this here in second Timothy chapter two. One of the reasons

Paul does this is because of something he said in Philippians chapter three, verse one. Finally, my brothers rejoice in the

Lord to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it is safe for you.

It's no problem for Paul to write down. Hey, remember Jesus Christ. Why is that?

Why would that be a difficult thing for Paul to write that down? It's it's easy for him to do that.

And it's safe for Timothy to be reminded to remember Jesus, the true

Jesus, the one who was risen from the dead, the one who was born in the line of David, as was promised in the

Old Testament scriptures, the one that Paul preached about in his gospel. And he is now in prison for remember this

Jesus in our flesh, we are so easy to forget all kinds of things.

I remember when I was going through first and second Timothy with my congregation, we got to a point where we were going through the qualifications for elders in first Timothy, chapter three, verses one through seven, and paying particularly close attention to that section because we as a church were reviewing our structure, the way things were organized, the way we as a church were, were we obeying the model that Christ had set forth for his church to follow?

And that meant considering even the leadership in the church, most Southern Baptist churches follow that pastor deacon model.

But did we need to have a plurality of elders? And that's what we were considering as we were going through that list of qualifications.

And we spent weeks on that. And I remember one gentleman coming to me, and this was actually a fellow who eventually became one of our elders.

He came to me after, you know, second or third Sunday that I was preaching on first Timothy three, one through seven.

And he said to me, I understand why we need to go through these things. I I get why we as a church are devoting so much time and attention to this section of scripture.

And he said to me, but don't forget the gospel. And when I went back and listened to sermons and was evaluating what

I was preaching, he was absolutely right. I was I was kind of going through all the structural reasons why we needed to organize ourselves as a church like this.

But the gospel wasn't being preached as I was talking about those things. We still needed to be reminded of Christ who died for our sins, for that's what the elders are taking care of in the work of shepherding that they do in the church.

They are cherishing the gospel and preaching it, communicating it to the people of God.

The good news that Jesus Christ, who is God, came down from heaven, took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, died a death in our place in which he took the wrath of God upon himself, drank every last drop of it, declared it is finished.

He rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will be forgiven their sins and will receive his eternal life.

And then he ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He is coming back again to put all of his enemies under his feet, which has already been accomplished.

But he will finally defeat that last enemy, which is death. And then we who are in Christ will reign with him forever.

This is the good news of the gospel that we are to be communicating each and every Sunday. It is the job of the elders of the church to shepherd the people of God in that truth.

And I had forgotten to preach that truth as we were going through the qualifications for elders and overseers.

The first qualification is that they must believe and proclaim the gospel. And yet that wasn't being preached as we were going through that list.

So we are so easy to forget even the basics of these things that are the basis for our faith.

Remember Christ Jesus, Paul says to Timothy and draws his attention to the true

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

Paul is not being persecuted because he was preaching Christ plus Buddhism, you know, or or some

Greek philosophy. It's fine if you believe those philosophies. But here you also have to believe in this gospel.

Consider this in with all the other Greek philosophies that you believe. If that's what

Paul's message was, he wouldn't have been persecuted for it because that's not offensive. A person can easily reject that.

Well, OK, my philosophy is working for me. I'll consider yours as well, but I don't have to listen to it.

No, Paul was outright saying that if you don't repent of your sins, if you don't repent of your idol worship and worship the true

God, then Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, is going to return and he's going to judge you by fire unless you repent and worship

Christ only. And this message was what was incredibly offensive, particularly to the people in Ephesus in the context of what we just read in Acts chapter 19, because as that story goes on, there were some people who made a living by crafting idols and they were starting to lose money because people weren't buying their idols since Paul was telling the people to worship

Jesus Christ, who was not made by human hands. So those who made a living off of the temple, the temple of Artemis and all of the different artifacts that were made to Artemis and things like this, well, they had a problem with that message.

And so the whole city of Ephesus ended up coming against Paul because of this gospel, this exclusive gospel that he proclaimed.

And the world will hate you as well for proclaiming this gospel and also for living out your

Christian faith. Obeying the things that Jesus said, because you believe that marriage is between a man and a woman only, according to what

Jesus taught in Matthew 19, the world is going to hate you for that because you tell a person that the beliefs that they have and and and these philosophies that they've clung to will not save them, but they must believe in Jesus Christ and him alone.

People are going to hate you for that message. Jesus made such exclusive claims about himself.

Jesus himself said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one gets to the father, but by me, it's not Jesus and or Jesus plus this.

It's Christ alone. In Christ alone, do we have salvation, the forgiveness of sins, acceptance before God, the father?

It comes no other way except by trusting in Jesus Christ. And if you add anything else to that, it's really not

Christ that you're trusting in. It's the other thing that you've added to Christ that you believe that you need in order to truly find satisfaction or salvation or or unlocking all the secrets of knowledge in the universe.

So it can't be Christ and your daily horoscope or Christ and a future spouse or Christ and your job or Christ and whoever is president of the

United States or Christ and science, Christ and Darwinism, Christ and philosophy, whatever comes after the and that's really where your faith is, not in Jesus Christ and him alone to forgive your sins and deliver you from death into eternity with God.

You must place your faith in him alone and trust in him daily to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and present you as justified before our father in heaven.

If you do not believe that salvation is in Christ alone, then you do not believe in Christ for you do not believe the words that Jesus himself said, that it is only through him that we have access to the father.

Remember Jesus Christ. And I've said these things to you today because it's no trouble for me and it's safe for you.

Let's pray our father in heaven. We thank you for the salvation that we've been given in Christ.

And I pray that you would continue to fashion our ears to listen more for the voice of the good shepherd.

Nobody else's voice will satisfy. It's the voice of strangers. But because we are of the sheep of the flock of God, we listen for the voice of the good shepherd who cares for us and laid down his life for our sheep.

His is the voice that we want to hear for. He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

He lays us down in green pastures and restores our souls, forgiving our sins and is giving us the promise of his eternal kingdom.

Only Jesus can offer this to us. We get it by no other way, no, no other person or teacher, but only through Christ alone.

Do we have the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life? It's in his name we pray.

Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.