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2 Timothy 2:9
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Timothy chapter 2. Brother Steve mentioned this already but in God's providence Sunday school this morning we looked at scripture alone. The sufficiency of scripture we read in the confession this morning of of the Holy Scriptures from the second London Baptist confession of faith.
And then this morning our text in 2nd Timothy we will also be speaking directly about what Paul speaks about. He directly mentions the Word of God here and so this morning. I pray that as we leave that we will have a higher view of the Word of God.
That we would will be driven to it Colton to turn it down just a little bit so our text will be 2nd Timothy 2 9. We're gonna read verse 8 for context. If you please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Holy Word.
2nd Timothy chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. The offspring of David is preached in my gospel for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal. But the Word of God is not bound.
Let us pray father this morning we are thankful for you. We are thankful that we have had so many sermons lately that have dealt with your wonderful attributes Lord that as we have as Pastor Quatro has preached through Nahum chapter 1 that we have seen Lord of your your wonderful wonderful wonderful attributes and who you are Lord.
I pray that it has grown our view of you Lord that we view you as greater than we did before. I pray that each day we would grow in our view of you and our love of you. I pray that this morning we would grow in our love for your word Lord.
We are thankful for your word Lord. Help us to have a higher view of your word. Help us to desire to read it more. I pray Lord this morning that you would help me to preach it. You would help me to preach it rightly.
Father God I stand in great need of your grace and your mercy this morning to guide me and to help me. Pray Lord that this would be glorifying to you and edifying to your church. Pray Lord that you would help me to rightly preach it.
Pray Lord that you would help us to rightly apply it. Give us ears to hear your word this morning Lord. We're thankful this Lord's Day for Christ as we gather to remember that he has risen and is in his name.
That we pray amen. In our text this morning we have Paul reminding us of his current state. He informs us that he is bound with chains as a criminal. This is the second time in this letter that Paul has reminded us of his imprisonment.
If you look back in chapter 1 verse 16 he says. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. So we have the second time that Paul is referring to his imprisonment.
And in this reference here in verse 9 of chapter 2 this reference of in his imprisonment Paul gives us the most direct explanation for why he is under arrest. And we find that that he is suffering bound with chains as a criminal.
And we find the reason in verse 8. Look at me with verse 8 remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead the offspring of David has preached to my gospel for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal.
He's suffering for the gospel. He is in prison for the gospel. Paul had ended up in a Roman jail cell for preaching the gospel. And there will be two truths in our text that I want to focus on. But the first one being that Paul is bound he is bound.
Paul was a man and a man can be bound in his current state. In this letter reminds us of this fact. In this particular instance he is bound with chains as a criminal. And this morning we're gonna do just a little bit differently a little bit different than usual we're gonna look at this in a more topical manner that further illustrates Paul's point in this verse.
And I want to flesh out this fact that Paul as a man is in the current state of being bound he is bound. And I want to look at this particular way that Paul is bound as well as some other ways that Paul was bound in his life.
It's also looking at ways that we as human beings are bound as well or can be bound. And what this is going to do is this is really I hope set the hope to set the stage and help us better understand the weight of Paul's next statement when he says the Word of God is not bound.
So the first question we need to answer what ways is it true that Paul was bound. And what ways is it true that we can be bound. This is not will not be an all-encompassing look at this. But I will look at briefly at five ways that Paul was bound.
Five ways that we are bound or can be bound. The first way is that man can be bound as Paul was firstly by opposition. When a man or woman faces opposition it is entirely possible that the opposition can bind them.
We can be bound. We can be locked up. We can be killed by our opposition. It can become a crime to share the gospel. And the next time that we go evangelize out in the streets here in Perryville we could be put in prison for preaching the gospel.
This is not out of the realm of possibilities. We are foolish if we think that that cannot happen here. It is happening in other countries. We're foolish to think that it might not one day happen here.
You can see in the direction and the culture of our country you can see this that is not out of the realm of possibility. We are human and humans can be bound locked up and or killed as a fact of this life.
Take Paul for an example. Paul faced opposition faced opposition. In many ways. He whether they sought to kill him before his current imprisonment they had sought to kill him. He had been stoned he had been ridiculed.
He had been locked up before this. This is not the first time that he was bound. But he is physically bound in this current state as he is right in his current state. As he is writing this letter they had suppressed the influence of Paul.
Paul known for his many great travels planting churches and proclaiming the gospel was bound and no longer able to travel. He couldn't leave. He could not leave this prison. He couldn't himself physically take the gospel to the nations.
He was bound by his opposition in this. He was also bound by distance. Really even before he was bound in prison it was impossible for Paul to be everywhere at one time. I'm sure he would love to be everywhere at one time.
You know you think about the problems with the church at Corinth. Paul would have probably loved to have been there all the time. He probably would have loved to be everywhere at once and never have to leave the church at Corinth so that they wouldn't do all the things that they did.
So they wouldn't listen to the false teachers. So they wouldn't be allowing immoral people to be a part of their church. He would have loved to have been there but it was not possible. He was bound by distance.
He didn't take the gospel to every city in the world because some of them were too far for him to travel. This is true as of us as individuals we cannot be everywhere at one time. Even with the technology we have.
It helps immensely. Pastor Quatro and I. We go on zoom each month with Jerry Maria Jerry and Maria and that's wonderful. I thank God for that. I thank God for that ability. But I can't be there to labor alongside them in Belize and also pastor here.
I can't spread the gospel in Belize and Mexico and Perryville all at once. I can't do that. I am bound. I can't spread the gospel of the world by myself. I am bound by distance. Why can I be bound by distance.
Why was Paul bound by distance. Because he was a man. Because I'm a man. Because I'm human I am bound by the flesh. And with being bound by the flesh comes weakness. Man can fail. Man does fail. I fail.
You fail. We all fail. And that limits our spreading of the gospel. My flesh fails me. It fails me physically. My body can give out Paul. His body had had given him issues from time to time. I can get sick and I cannot be able to go out and preach the gospel.
My body can fail to the point that I cannot communicate in any way. We can die. Man can die. I can die and no longer spread the gospel. But not only does the flesh limit physically I also bind us physically but also morally.
My flesh limits how obedient I am to God's Word. This side of glory. I cannot be completely obedient to the Word of God. You know I think of oh how much time has been wasted in my life due to sin. Due to my sin.
Sins of commission. Sins of omission means sins I've actively done or inactively commission doing the wrong thing sinful thing or omission not doing the right thing which is also sin. How much time have we wasted because of our sin.
Because of our sins of commission and omission. But the point here is mankind. We as mankind we can be tempted. We can fall into temptation. Man can be full of pride. Any of these any of us can fall into these things.
All of us have fallen in to sin and that limits our effectiveness in spreading the Word of God. Now our imperfections are not an excuse to not spread the Word of God but they greatly hinder it as far as the potential.
If we didn't have these weaknesses. With our flesh and weakness comes the opportunity for being wrong and we can be bound by error. Man can be wrong. Man can make mistakes and our error can limit how we spread the gospel.
A wrong view or belief of the gospel may limit what we do. It may limit how biblical our churches are. It can cause us to waste much time in error. And often because of our sinful arrogance we refuse to see the truth at least for a little while.
We're limited by our stubbornness. We can be obstinate. Man can dig in in their error. We have dug in in our error. We in our sinful stubbornness put off trusting in Christ. We didn't come to Christ sooner because our hearts were wicked and in our stubbornness we wanted to remain wicked.
Praise God for his irresistible grace. I think we understand the point. We understand that we as mere men and women in and of ourselves are limited in many ways and can be limited by many things. We can be.
But we must understand something as we go to our next point where we'll spend the majority of our time. Paul says for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal. But pay attention to his next statement.
But the Word of God is not bound where man is limited. God is not where man can be bound. The Word of God can not. The weaknesses and limitations of man do not limit God. They may limit our individual effectiveness but God uses us and works in spite of our limitations.
God uses weak men with many weaknesses to perfectly execute his limitless will. And Paul recognizes this. Paul's view of God and his word was greater than ours. I'm afraid God is not like us to be limited or bound by the things that we can be limited or bound by.
He cannot be limited by anything Paul was. But where he is limited God is not where he is bound. The Word of God is not. And when we just look at the things that I've mentioned that Paul could be bound by that we can be bound by.
When we look at those things in relation to God and his word we begin to see more clearly that God and his word are not limited. Paul was bound. Paul was bound by his opposition. He was in a Roman prison.
He was bound in chains as a criminal because he was man. But where he was bound he says the Word of God was not bound. The Word of God cannot be bound by opposition. The opposition can desire to bind the Word of God by suppression but it cannot be suppressed.
Man can be suppressed. The mouth of man can be stopped and bound. Opposition to the word that could tape my mouth shut even worse. They could remove my tongue where I can never speak again. They can take my hands where I could never write of the gospel.
But the word can't be suppressed. Man can be suppressed by annihilation. Man can be killed. We have seen this throughout history. It was gonna happen to Paul. Paul was going to have his head cut off. He was no longer going to be in this life.
Paul would never be free in this life from Roman chains after writing this all. But John of the Apostles are believed to have been killed because of their preaching of the gospel. They tried to kill John.
We can read Fox's Book of Martyrs and read of numerous martyrs. We can read that thousands of Christians were killed by the Roman Empire in just the first three centuries alone. We can go closer more recent history.
Hundreds killed in the 1500s in England during the five-year rule of Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary. We can look back this past summer and see. I don't know all that much about them but Christian couple who are missionaries in Haiti that were senselessly killed.
And this is just a drop in the bucket of the total people killed for the Christian faith in the past two millennia. That estimate and that estimate they say is around 70 million now. I don't know what percentage of that 70 million were faithfully sharing the gospel and that led to their martyrdom.
I can't even confirm that they were all indeed Christians. But I assume that in 70 million at least at least hundreds of thousands or a million would be faithfully sharing the gospel or living according to the gospel in the Word of God.
That's probably a low number. William Tyndale he is among those killed for translating the Word of God into English. So so many killed for the faith. And yet here we are preaching the same gospel living by the same faith.
How is that possible. How is it possible that all these people have been killed for the faith. And here we are reading the same Bible reading the same scripture preaching the same gospel living by the same faith.
Whole governments have sought to destroy the Christian faith. They have sought to destroy the Bible. I sought to burn every one of them. And here we still have it in our hands. How. Because of the mighty hand of God he has sustained it.
He has sustained the Word of God. It is real. The only way that the Word of God could have survived all of the opposition is because of the hand of God. It is a testament to the power and the sovereignty of God.
That's the factor here. You can kill all the ministers of the gospel and God will raise up more. He has done this time and time again and I am confident that he will continue to do it until Christ returns.
I'm confident that if the God if the government came in here and locked us all up even killed us all I am confident that the gospel would still go forth and he would raise up more in our place. The word will go forth and he will not lack those to proclaim it.
You can burn the Bibles you can shred page after page. But you cannot destroy the truth. Because you cannot destroy the giver of the truth. He cannot be destroyed. His word cannot be destroyed. Many in power have opposed the Word of God going forth so much that they prohibited the translating of it.
Rome prohibited the translation of the Word of God and yet it was translated anyway. And it's still being translated today. Is it because men such as William Tyndale were so great and mighty mighty. Oh it's because God is so great and mighty.
Many have opposed the true gospel and tried to destroy it. But you cannot destroy the gospel because Christ continues to live and reign. The word is alive as the gospel is alive. You cannot destroy it.
It remained through Roman Catholicism when it was popular when it ruled and it will remain through the current evangelical mess that rejects and trades in the true gospel. We can have confidence in this.
No opposition can stop the truth of the word. Spurgeon wrote that the Word of God is not bound and at his time 19 centuries after Paul we still have an open Bible in a free pulpit. Pulpit. Blessed be God for this.
Today hundreds of years after Spurgeon we still have an open Bible in a free pulpit. Blessed be God for this. And woe to those who oppose this truth. Woe to those who oppose the Word of God. Woe to those who oppose the gospel.
For there is great judgment for they who do. For they are not just opposing the Word of God they are opposing the God of the Word the sovereign God of the universe and history has shown even in Paul's life that the more opposition the Word of God faces the more that it spreads.
Paul writes in Philippians 1 chapter 1 verses 12 through 14. I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Paul's saying hey he's telling him hey I'm bound. But I want you to know that what has happened to me has really advanced the gospel.
I've been bound and because I've been bound the whole Imperial Guard and the rest know that my imprisonment is for Christ. And he also says because of my being bound because of me being in prison the Lord has caused more to be bold in their speaking for the Word of God in their spreading of the gospel.
So it has increased the boldness that they speak the Word of God without fear. May God continue to use the opposition of the gospel to only succeed in stoking its flame. That because of the opposition that the gospel spreads all the more and more and more believers become emboldened in its proclamation.
That we may see more evangelizing. That we may see more taking the gospel to the streets. The Word of God cannot be bound as Paul was by opposition. We may can be bound by position but the word is not nor is it bound by distance.
His word can reach every place whereas I cannot be all places at once. Paul was bound by distance especially in this moment bound in a pre-roman prison. We've already discussed this but God is bound in no such way and neither is his word.
For I am NOT and cannot be in all places. Paul could not be in all places God is and he is working in all places. He is building his church in all places. Pastor Quattro is in Mexico right now. God is building his church in Mexico and his word is going forth all over the world.
In Belize and Mexico and China and Africa in the Atlantic the Pacific. God's Word is going out there all out all the world. People are being saved all over this world because his word is going forward.
Translating is happening daily and it keeps going. It is only by the hand of God. If it wasn't by his hand it would fail. Because mankind as I've mentioned we are weak as I mentioned earlier we are bound by our weaknesses and failures just as Paul was even believers although not to the extent of an unbeliever.
But the Word of God is bound in no such way. The Word of God is not bound by the flesh. The Word of God was not bound by Paul's flesh is not bound by ours or the weakness of the flesh. It is not bound by the weakness of the preacher or the believer.
Preachers have weaknesses. Preachers have sin. The sin binds us. Our prayer lives aren't what they should be. Our time of study isn't what it should be. Our sermons are not immune from our weaknesses.
We could be smarter. I could be smarter I could articulate better when I preach. All believers have weaknesses. All have sin. We are weak in our evangelism weak in so many ways. But the Word of God is not weak.
It is powerful because it is spoken by the one true God who holds all power. These physical bodies will perish because of their weakness. But the Word of God endures. It continues. There is no weakness in God nor is their weakness in his word.
We as humans we have made and continue to make errors because of our weakness. But the Word of God is not bound by our errors. The Word of God is inerrant. It is without error. This word is not bound.
It is not without error. Many have erred egregiously in their proclamation of the gospel. Many have erred in changing the gospel. And this is a tactic by the evil one to abolish the gospel. We've mentioned two different examples.
The Roman Catholic Church modern evangelicalism have erred in the gospel. Some have been ignorant in their error. That is not an excuse. But some have believed and preached wrongly not out of a desire themselves to pervert the gospel but out of ignorance.
And yet somehow the gospel was shared and was effectual. The truth has prevailed. How is it possible. How is that possible. Because our errors cannot stop the will of God. He can even use the error of man to fulfill his perfect and inerrant will and purposes.
Only God can do that. With so much error. Throughout church and human history we read even of the Reformers. We appreciate these men but they were not without error. Charles Spurgeon Prince of Preachers.
We're thankful for such men but he is not without error. The man that we look at today you look at the MacArthur's the Sproul's the Washers the Blockham's the whoever it is that you like to listen to these men are not without error.
With so much error the true inerrant Word of God is still being read it's still being taught preached and distributed. How. Because God has maintained it God has maintained it. And the true gospel will be preached all over the world today despite the error of man.
And it will save the most wretched of sinners. God's hands are not tied to where he can't save the vilest of wretches. He saves who he pleases. Even those who have been obstinate to his word for years because the Word of God is not bound by obstinance.
The Word of God in particular the gospel can pierce the most stubborn and sinful of hearts. Paul knew this as he was writing that the Word of God would go forth. The Word of God would go forth. The gospel would go forth.
The gospel that he was being persecuted for the gospel that he was in chains as a criminal for was not bound. And what he's telling Timothy is hey I'm bound. I'm bound with chains as a criminal. They've locked me up.
But take heart Timothy take heart that even if they bind you that the gospel is not bound the Word of God is not bound. It will go forth and it will still save. It will still be effectual. It will pierce the most stubborn and sinful of hearts.
For it pierced mine and it pierced yours. This is great news. What great hope this should give us. Maybe you have prayed for a loved one and it just seems that they are stubborn towards it. They are cold-hearted.
They won't listen to the word. They continue to reject it to the point that you've given up all hope in the softening of their heart to the gospel. Maybe this even is your child. There's someone really close to you.
But I want you to understand this morning that God is not bound. Nor is this word bound by their rejection and stubbornness. Spurgeon writes. This is a good quote from Spurgeon. The God of all grace has ways of getting at human hearts when our thinking.
Every Avenue is fast closed. He can reach the poor in the slums of London. He can reach the harlot in her chambers of iniquity. He can touch the most debauched man on town in his lordly met lordy mansion.
There is not a soldier who has gone into the ranks for the sake of hiding away from God and indulging indulging his passions. But what the Lord can conquer him. There is not a runaway thief. But what the Lord can find him when the police cannot.
He knows just where his fugitives are. His warrants are out against them. And when the times come the time comes. His grace will arrest them. Praise God. Praise God. Praise him for his boundless word and his boundless will.
And we can take hope in this believer. Continue to pray for your loved ones and share the gospel with them. An unbeliever understand that God can save you. You're not worthy to be saved. None of us are worthy to be saved.
You have done many horrible things as we all have. You have broken God's law as we all have. But God sent forth his son born of a virgin and he fulfilled all righteousness. Kept the law perfectly. Died on the cross for sinners like me and like you.
And he rose on the third day guaranteeing the justification of his children. Believe upon this Savior. God can save you. Call upon him. We're see it. Repent of your sins and believe the gospel for it is not bound.
He is not bound by your stubbornness. The Word of God is not bound for the same reason that it is powerful is because it is the Word of God Almighty. The spreading of the gospel is divine in nature and therefore cannot be thwarted by the workings or shortcomings of man.
The Word of God will be fulfilled and man cannot stop it. And that leaves us with some quick applications in the light of the Word of God not being bound. First one in light of us understanding this truth that even though we as Paul can be bound we can be bound in chains as a criminal.
But in light of this truth that the Word of God is not bound what should we do. We should study it. Study the word for in it holds the Word of God. How foolish are we men and women who can be bound to not read the words of the Living God.
Every excuse you can use for not reading it. For not reading the Word of God it doesn't hold water. I'll go a step further. Every excuse you have for not reading it daily doesn't hold water. I've heard many men preach of this fact.
May we hunger for the Word of God more than we do something to eat. More than we do water something to drink. May we understand that we need the Word of God more than we need these things. May we long to read its pages more than we long for the next breath.
Study it. Don't just study it but study it and believe it. Because it is God's Word and we can trust in it. For we can trust in him. Believe what you read in its pages. Have confidence in God. Have confidence in his word.
Study it. Believe it obey it. These are the words of eternal life. Abide in them. Trust and obey. Study it. Believe it obey it. Proclaim it. We do not stay quiet in regards to the Word of God. We proclaim it to the whole world.
It is boundless. It is boundless. And we'll go out and go forth to the Word of God or to the whole world. The Word of God will go forth to the whole world. Proclaim it. And lastly rest in it. We rest in the fact that the Word of God is not bound nor can it be bound.
His word will accomplish exactly what he would have for it to accomplish. We can rest in that fact. So when we proclaim it we can rest in that fact. We can go proclaim it to the streets. And no one come and fall before God in front of us and say I've repented enough trust in Christ.
We may never see that. But we can rest in the fact that his word will accomplish exactly what he desires for it to. We can rest in its words for our own lives. We can rest in its truth. We can rest in its promises.
Believer what hope you have in this word. In the gospel that is contained in his pages. For it speaks of Christ who bore our sin on Calvary and he rose victorious. And he is risen and reigning. And we can rest in his word unbeliever.
Quit trusting in yourself. Quit trusting in the words and works of man. Believe this book. For it holds the words of eternal life. And it cannot be.
Bound let us pray.