Preach The Word Through All Seasons

Transcript

GRM 946
1/8/2006
Preach the Word through All Seasons
II Timothy 3:1-7, 4:1-5
Gil Rugh


I was at a book sale this week and that was a delight. All hard backs, all new volumes and all hard backs were $4 and all paperbacks were $2. So I bought a few items. And when I got back I sat down and read this one, it’s an easy read, little book, moves along well. And it is really about a person that this man sees as the most inspiring pastor of our time and pastor of a large church. And I just want to read you a couple of quotes and then as we move through the portion we’re going to look at in the Word today, I think you’ll see how they relate to what we’re going to look at. We’re not going to be in I Corinthians today, but we will resume that study next week.

First quote regards mega churches and mega churches are generally regarded as those churches that are 2000 or more in attendance on a Sunday. Some authors start it at 1000 and move it up, but there are enough large churches coming on the scene that most take 2000. Mega church have also been able to identify what turns parishoners off. Americans do not go to church to be forced into a crusade or to judge sinners. Going to church is based on belief, not religious dogmatism. A 1965 Gallup poll showed that 50% of the people surveyed said they went to church so they could learn to live a better life, and that the church was supposed to fulfill that need. They wanted to live better day by day, not just to be lectured on Sunday as though they were always wrong and sinful. Today the number of people who view churches as having the responsibility of teaching a better way of living has risen to almost 75%. This evidence suggests that fulfillment is what the seeker wants, and fulfillment is what the mega churches are delivering.

And from my reading of this book, I don’t believe the man is a believer, as we would understand it. He’s written a half dozen biographies of different people as well as received awards for his writings in other areas. Keep that in mind.

Later in the book……… Some of you familiar with Norman Vincent Peale? Okay, there are a few of you oldies out there. Some of you young people have heard of him as well. Guidepost magazine. He pastored forever in New York City, didn’t die until in his 90s and became quite well known from his ministry there in New York City and then through his writings and radio program. Not a believer in any sense of the word, as we would understand a born again Christian. Rev. Norman Vincent Peale is to many the most prophetic and moving New Age preacher of the 20th century. He is also the father of the self-help movement that formed the groundwork for the church growth movement. Peale formed perhaps the most dramatic and meaningful link between religion and psychology of any religious leader in history. You see that joining together of religion and psychology. This writer believes that Norman Vincent Peale is the most influential person in history in that area.

It is this same approachable therapeutic brand of religion that many mega churches put forward today. It is this kind of religion that is so appealing to the masses of unchurched men and women. At Marble Collegiate, which is the church in New York where Peale was the pastor, Peale accomplished two main feats. And the first was to meld psychology and religion and the second was to promote his beliefs through his writings.

And then there is quite a bit on Peale’s ministry. Peale died on Christmas Eve 1993, in case you’re interested. But no matter what people think about his theories, they have to acknowledge Peale’s remarkable unification of psychology and theology. Without that unification, mega churches wouldn’t exist today. And he’s using as an example the church that this pastor pastors. This church is just one of many mega churches that offer focus groups for a variety of social problems, including such topics as marriage, work, child rearing, substance abuse, dependency, depression and other issues once thought to be beyond the scope of the Sunday church service. In that sense this mega church that he’s writing about bears the stamp of Norman Vincent Peale.

Goes on to talk about Robert Schuller whom you are familiar with. And he took Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking, and he quotes Schuller in here, I took Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking and changed it to possibility thinking. And has made that the substance of his ministry.

Moving on. The professor of religion at the University of Southern California uses the phrase, new paradigm church to describe the entity American churches are evolving into. Successful new paradigm churches are the mega churches in southern California built by men like Schuller and this pastor and others. New paradigm churches, and he’s going to draw a contrast here…….. The old style evangelical churches preach the Bible and expected people through learning the Bible and submitting to biblical truth and implementing it into their lives to live. So the idea is, you grew independent, you were taught the Bible and then you learned and you applied the Bible in how you live. New paradigm churches are able to address people’s concerns and reduce their stress by giving them a sense of religious fulfillment. So you’re not just left on your own with the Bible, and that’s why they have all these focus groups on your marriage, your teenagers, your depression, your alcoholism, your fill-in-the-blank. Because it’s not just learning the Scripture and allowing the Word of God to be built into your life by the ministry of the Spirit, and then living according to the Word—that’s stressful. You’re just out there with the Bible and the Holy Spirit. So these churches address people’s concerns and reduce their stress while giving them a sense of religious fulfillment.

As we know, this church that he’s writing about offers a variety of life management services. Groups and counselors are available to attend to such issues as sexual relationships, child raising, teen drug and alcohol abuse, healthy teen alternative lifestyles, caring for the sick and aged and coming to terms with the inner self. New paradigm churches are interested in the fulfillment of the people who attend. You see now, churches become built on the sociological principles. And it’s here to help people live life and deal with the problems of life. But the church brings a religious influence to this. So much of what they deal with are just basic problems of life.

New paradigm churches has become a spiritual shopping mall for people searching for life’s answers. With an abundant choice of stores—focus groups, health groups and ministries—from which to select, they will more than likely find at least one option that suits their needs. This multiple ministry approach employed by new paradigm churches gives the individual the opportunity to select a group or program based on a specific need.

And I just wanted you to be aware of the evolving of the church, and it continues to evolve and these new paradigm churches moving into what is called the emerging church movement. And we keep moving further and further away from the Scripture altogether, although this whole movement did not start out on a biblical foundation. It started out with a man who was not a true Bible believer. And yet the evangelical church is being shaped by this and has bought into it wholeheartedly. And you go to the average, if I can use that expression, evangelical church, you can take the bulletin and you can find the focus group. Not just talking about different Bible studies to attend, ministries devoted to ministering God’s truth to different ages and so on. We’re talking about groups to help you with sexual problems, groups to help you with drug problems, groups to help you with raising teenagers, groups to help you………… And somehow the church has merged into just one big self-help religious movement, rather than the ministry of God’s truth.

I want to direct your attention to II Timothy 3. I realize every time I ramble in Scripture, move around, I’m into areas where I know you have Bible studies. I was in II Peter here recently and I know some of you have been involved in studies and maybe have ongoing studies in II Peter, and the same with II Timothy. So I trust this will just be a reinforcement of what you are doing. II Timothy is Paul’s last letter. When we were in a portion of II Peter recently, I shared with you that II Peter was Peter’s last letter. And I’m always interested in the closing statements, words, writings of people who have been used of God, now they’re at the end of their lives. What do they have to say? I sometimes go into the back part of my library where my biographies are and I’ll sit down and pull off various biographies and I just read how they died and what they had to say. What were their closing words? What was the focus as they came to the conclusion of their earthly pilgrimage as God’s servant?

Here you have Paul writing to Timothy, and humanly speaking you would have to say things haven’t gone well for Paul. He’s gone from the top to the bottom, humanly speaking. Until his conversion on the Damascus Road he was somebody in Israel, he was a rising star in Judaism. By his own testimony he had far outstripped his own contemporaries. He was somebody going places. That brings with it not only fame but position and all the benefits that come with that such as material benefits and so on. But following his conversion on the Damascus Road, as we just look at this from the human perspective, Paul went to the bottom. And here he is now, the last letter of his life, and he is awaiting his impending execution. In the closing remarks of this letter he’ll say the process that will culminate in my death has already begun. On a previous imprisonment Paul could write to the Philippians and say I’m expecting by your prayers to be delivered. Paul has no such expectation on this occasion. The Lord has confirmed to his heart that his earthly ministry is drawing to a close. So here he is, a man who was coming to fame in Israel, to influence and position, now a prisoner awaiting execution. You might think he’s discouraged, you might think he was writing to Timothy, a man much younger than he who is going to be carrying on the ministry. Timothy, I’ve learned some things over these years, you don’t have to end up like me. There are ways to do the ministry that would be more effective, give you greater impact and you don’t have to look forward to ending up in a dirty prison awaiting such a death as execution.

But that’s not what Paul has to say to Timothy. In fact he says just the opposite. He says, Timothy, it is time for you to step up and be more bold than you’ve ever been, in chapter 1. II Timothy 1:7, God has not given us a spirit of timidity. Timothy, if you’re feeling like you should hold back, if you’re feeling afraid like a coward, that doesn’t come from the Spirit of God. Don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, verse 8. But let’s face it, here’s young Timothy. He can look at the patter of Paul’s life and what has it gotten him and where has it taken him. Even all those who are in Asia have abandoned him. Asia is where he planted churches like Ephesus, the church at Colosse in Asia, and those who were from Asia have abandoned me, he has to say. Timothy, don’t allow that to cause you to be intimidated, don’t allow that to cause you to pull back, think this is a time just to hunker down, be a little more reserved, a little more circumspect, a little more careful with whom you talk to and how you preach. Tone it down a little bit, Timothy, until this passes over. Paul’s message is just the opposite.

II Timothy 2:3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that it may please him who has called him to be a soldier. Keep your focus, Timothy. Look at verse 15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth. This becomes a passionate concern of Paul, be faithful to the truth, Timothy. Be faithful with the truth. You be careful and you give forth the truth accurately and correctly.

And you come to chapter 3 and I want to highlight some things in chapter 3, and the first part of chapter 4 with you. Note what Paul says to Timothy in the the first verse or chapter, realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. I mean it’s almost relentless, driving home to Timothy, you can expect trouble, Timothy. You can expect hard times, Timothy. You’re going to need perseverance, you’re going to need courage, you have to look at this as a soldier on active duty. In the last days. The last days are the days of the Messiah. You remember the Old Testament saints as they looked to the future and the prophets spoke of the future, they spoke of the coming of the Messiah. And the Messiah would come in the last days. But the Old Testament prophets did not understand that there would be two comings of the Messiah, His first coming 2000 years ago and the second coming to earth which we still anticipate. So they just talked about the days of Messiah as the last days. We live in the last days, Timothy lived in the last days, Paul lived in the last days. The whole period of time from the first coming of Christ to the second coming are the last days. Timothy, you live in the last days.

Look at the end of verse 5, avoid such men as these. The men I’m going to describe, the kind of men that will be present in the last days, you have to avoid them, Timothy. In other words, Timothy, you live in the last days. And in the last days difficult times will come. That’s just what I needed to hear. You might think you’d hear from Paul—Timothy, pick your head up, it’s not going to always be so bad. You know, Timothy, it’s been hard for me, but you can expect better times ahead. I know the Lord is going to make it easier for you than for me, Timothy. I was the trailblazer, but you can expect it to be a little easier. No. I want you to understand this, Timothy, it’s not going to get any easier. In the last days difficult times will come. That word translated difficult, times that are dangerous, troublesome, hard to bear. We would say hard times. That word translated times is the word seasons. And these seasons, hard seasons will come and there will be these periods of time that are difficult, dangerous, troublesome. It doesn’t mean it will be just constantly that, but you can expect that these difficult, troublesome seasons will come. And even though there are lulls in between the difficult seasons, the difficult seasons will come.

Some of you have been part of the ministry here a long time and we sometimes joke, it’s nice to have a time of tranquility between the battles and conflicts. So we sometimes say, I’m almost holding my breath. What’s the next battle? In a way that’s a good, realistic outlook. Not that we want to look for trouble, but the ministry of God’s truth makes its own trouble. You know it helps to be prepared, doesn’t it? We raise our children and we sometimes tell them, life isn’t always going to be easy. Are we trying to discourage them? No, we’re trying to prepare them so that when difficulties come they don’t feel overwhelmed, like I never expected this. No, expect it. It’s disappointing when difficulties come, often, but it shouldn’t be surprising, it shouldn’t discourage us or cause us to want to give up. So Timothy, difficult times will come.

And then he goes on to describe what people will be like and with people like this you can expect it will be hard times for the ministry of God’s truth. Men will be lovers of self. Now again when we talk about difficult times we’re going to talk about the fact that even though these could be characteristics of all sinners all the time, there will be times when these things manifest themselves in bolder ways, so that the opposition to God’s truth and the ministers of God’s truth and the servants of Jesus Christ will be more difficult. By nature all sinners love themselves, but there comes a time when people are more open and blatant in manifesting their self-love and the selfishness of their lives. We live in a day like that today. It’s considered a virtue to learn how to love yourself and put the prime attention on #1, and learning to take care of yourself first, and putting yourself first. And the more that emphasis becomes prominent, the more difficult is the ministry of truth, which is contrary to that emphasis. Because people that are in the mode of promoting that don’t want to hear the truth.

Men will be lovers of self. Now what would you think would go with loving yourself? Loving money. They’ll be lovers of money. Paul talked about this to Timothy in his first letter, in I Timothy 6:10 he said, the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And furthermore, some believers have gotten caught up in that and they’ve made ruin of their faith, I Timothy 6:10. Serious matter, because what goes on in the world begins to seep into the church, and begins to shape the thinking of God’s people. And already Paul could say, some believers have made a wreck of their testimony for Jesus Christ, because they’ve gotten caught up in the love of money, which can only bring ruin.

Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant. I think that goes with it, doesn’t it? You love yourself, you want to promote yourself. You can go to the bookstore and look in sections and you’ll find books on learning how to promote yourself. And that will help you get rich, because you’re worth it. And there’s nothing wrong with having possessions, there’s something wrong with loving those possessions. God has given us all good things to enjoy, but I’d better be careful. Remember what He warned Israel of, when I’ve blessed you and given you abundance, you be careful that you don’t get caught up in your abundance and forget about Me. We see that as a pattern, the more we have in this country, the less time people have for the Lord. Used to be when we had a lot less people were a lot more open to being involved in the things of the Lord. Now we’re so busy we just like to cram it in to one hopefully just short of an hour. In fact the man in the book I read, he preaches 15-minute messages. Get in, get out, fulfill your obligations. I mean we’re just so busy, we don’t have time for the Lord, we have so many things. We have multiple cars and big houses and lots of things to belong to and lots of places to go and lots of places to spend our money. I don’t want to give up church, but I don’t like it intruding into my life so much. Most evangelical churches don’t have Sunday night anymore, do you know why? Nobody comes out. Why? We’re busy—busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. It goes on in the world, the world is so busy. Everybody is busy. Comes with prosperity, doesn’t it?

Boastful, arrogant, who is #1? And we have TV shows, we can learn about the person who got rich and wealthy and he is arrogant and he boasts about himself. Arrogant. Revilers. Ouch. That’s the word we get the English word blasphemy from. They’re blasphemers. Here are people who have no interest in God. We want to be careful about the influence the world asserts over us, because these are people who are opposed to God. They are opposed to His truth. This is not the pattern of His plan for His people.

Next one—disobedient to parents. What’s all the trouble with raising teenagers today, with getting children to obey. Well you know part of it—what happens? The world goes this way. One hundred years ago when I was in grade school they paddled you, not that could have ever happened to me. But you didn’t do something right they’d say come up here, stand up, bend over and touch your ankles. Swat. I still remember a kid in my 4th grade class. These big, thick rulers, some of you can remember them, right? Long, thick. They used that to paddle. The teacher broke it over his backside. She made him walk down to the office and get a new paddle and bring it back so she could finish. I mean the ultimate humiliation. Now it’s rampant everywhere. I mean we’re struggling with grade schoolers, let alone everybody has given up teenagers. What can you do with them? You just turn them loose and hope for the best. And they don’t think they should have to pay attention to anyone. Where does it come from? Well it comes from the world system and the god of this world. A world that is in rebellion against God is in rebellion against all the authority that God establishes. And it just goes hand in hand.

They blaspheme, they’ve rejected God’s authority. Why in the world would they want to submit to their parents’ authority? And if they don’t have to submit to their parents’ authority, why do they have to submit to teachers’ authority? If they don’t have to submit to teachers, where…………. And on it goes. Because remember it’s all about me, it’s all about me being happy, and it’s all about me doing what I like. Remember, lovers of self and arrogant. I not only think it’s about me, I think it should be about me because I saw the advertisements and the programs and they promote that. And pretty soon our thinking is shaped by it.

They are ungrateful, unthankful. I mean I deserve it. Why do you expect me to be thankful for what I deserve? I’m only getting what I deserve. I’m not thankful for it, no. It’s my right, I deserve it. Reading an article in the Omaha paper, it had to do with the retirement system of public officials. And some people were concerned about the amount. A person says, you work 25 years, you’re 50 years old, we deserve to be able to retire and live a good life. I was going to clip that out and give it to the elders, I’m over 60, I’m over the hill. I mean where does that come from? It’s nice that you can retire young, but I deserve it. The fact that it should be questioned, I take personally. Am I thankful for this? Not particularly. Why? I deserve it. They are ungrateful.

Unholy. We see these things we think unholy, blasphemy gets mixed right in with these other things because they all join together. Unholy, they are disrespectful toward God and toward others. Because the two commandments from God are to love God and love your neighbor. They don’t love either one because they love themselves. That’s the focus of life. Now this is not the word phileo love, this is not the word agapao love…. is the word here, not loving. And it refers to family love and affection. And there is a breakdown of family love and affection. I mean self-centeredness reigns supreme. Why does a man walk out on his wife and family for another woman? Because it gives him pleasure, he enjoys it, gives him satisfaction. Is he thinking about his wife? Thinking about his children? No, you have to do something for yourself. I don’t want to spend my life in a relationship that is unfulfilling, I don’t want to spend my life doing something that means being involved in what I don’t enjoy anymore. Why? Because it’s all about me, I love me. I don’t want to hurt my wife, I don’t want to hurt my kids, but it’s all about me. And there can only be #1, and it’s me. It’s not God, it’s no one else, it’s me. They are unloving, they don’t have normal family affections. I mean the kids—I hope the best for them and I don’t think this is going to be bad for them. Oh quit it, you couldn’t care less about them. There is only one #1 and your life is built around me, and I will do whatever pleases me, no matter what. And of course we move to no fault divorces. I remember being told when I was a young person and there was a family living next to us in our government housing. I asked one day, why don’t they get a divorce? They said you couldn’t afford to have two families. We weren’t even believers back then. Today you can. Why? There’s no fault, you just go out and everybody starts over. Why? Because everybody deserves a new chance. And on we go, and where does it end? Unloving.

Irreconcilable. Unforgiving. There’s no room to be reconciled here because why? It’s about me and there is arrogance, boastful. I mean if I’ve been offended, that is the ultimate, ultimate, ultimate wrong. I mean think about. It was me that was offended, it was me that was wronged. I mean there is just no getting over this. So they are irreconcilable, unforgiving. What can you do? I mean that’s the way it is.

Malicious gossips. We get the …, the devil, the slanderer. They speak against others, they accuse others falsely. They are like their father, the devil. He was a liar from the beginning, he’s the one who slanders, falsely accuses.

They are without self-control. This is an ugly list, isn’t it? We should go faster. Without self-control, no attempt to restrain the passions. We raise young children today believing in abstinence, become a laughingstock. Go to the university and say you’re going to have a class teaching abstinence. What a dinosaur. Why? Well it’s all about me and what gives me pleasure, what makes you think I want to have self-control? What do I want to hear you teach about self-control for? We teach safe sex, not self-control. And it pervades life. Give them a charge account, charge it. They don’t have to learn to control themselves. If you want it, you want it now. Buy now, pay later. Buy more now than you will be able to pay for later. Don’t think about that now, it gives you pleasure today, do it. And it just pervades every area.

Brutal. Word carries the idea of savage or fierce. I mean what happens with child abuse? We have a plague of this. You used to be able to go to the mall and your kids could……if they ran ahead of you, got out of sight for a minute you didn’t panic. Now you go to a mall and you can’t see your kid, every moment is a panic. You’re running around, what could have happened? Some terrible thing could have happened. What is the world coming to? Brutal, vile place. Terrorism…….doesn’t matter who it is, blow up a bus full of school children. Brutal.

Haters of good. It’s not that they are neutral about this, they hate the good. Why is going to be hard to minister God’s truth and be a light in the midst of darkness? Because they hate what is good. That means if you’re manifesting the character of God in your life and in your words, that doesn’t make them love you. That makes them hate you, because they hate what is good.

Treacherous. You can’t trust them. Reckless. They are thoughtless, whatever it takes to get my way, to have what will please me. That’s what it’s about. Conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. These are self-centered people, right? I mean it’s all about pleasure. Holding to a form of godliness. Now this almost comes as a shock. This group here you don’t think cares anything about God at all, they’re blasphemers. And now you say they have a form of godliness, doesn’t look like there’s any form of godliness here to me. But they can be very religious. They’re not against religion, they’re against biblical truth. They’re against the one true, living God. They’re against people that belong to the living God, but they’re not against religion. They have a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Paul’s concern is what infects and affects the church.

This kind of list is descriptive of unbelievers. We need to be careful, what Paul is concerned about in these kind of lists that come up often in his letters is that these kind of characteristics and qualities begin to find their way into the church. And it becomes acceptable. And you get into some churches today that claim to be evangelical, Bible-believing churches and they have groups on learning to love yourself. Something is wrong. Paul is not surprised that these things go on in the world, that these kind of people are present in the world. And their presence and the more openly they display against God, the more intense will be their opposition against God’s people.

The next section gets a little more touchy. He tells Timothy, avoid such men as these. That means you oughtn’t to go to church there, you oughtn’t to associate with these people. Now Jesus was a friend of sinners, but he didn’t become like the sinners. Doesn’t mean I’m not open to being friendly to my neighbor in that sense, but I have to be very careful I don’t become like them in their activity. There is to be a distinction. You avoid such men as this. I sometimes meet people, some people that used to come to Indian Hills, sometimes out and about, sometimes they stop by. I sometimes ask where they’re going to church. And rarely, but occasionally where they’re going I say well what are you doing there? I mean how can you be there? Oh, well, I know there are a lot of things there that…………but you know our kids got involved with some kids there and they wanted to go there and so we thought well for that………. I mean now we have the parents following the kids. So I guess your kids go and jump off the water tower, you’ll be next. I mean what is this? Or other reasons. We need to be careful, avoid such men as this. Now I’m not speaking that there are no other churches but this church. We went through the list.

All right we have to do the next one and then I have to jump on, and it’s not because I’m a coward, but I am. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins. These false teachers, it’s Paul’s concern that they begin to influence the home through the women. I didn’t write this, it’s not my fault. Was that an amen or a boo? Where were we? Chapter 4 verse 1. Weak women is literally, the word translated weak is little, little women. Of course it’s a derogatory term, so weak gives you the idea, little women, weak women, women that are susceptible to this. So you have both men and women, men are guilty and they foment this, but then they work it into homes through the women. In Titus chapter 1 Paul will warn Titus about false teachers who are upsetting whole households by their teaching. So we have to be careful with an influence like religious radio, books begin to carry this influence. Ladies have to be careful, there’s a reason God made the man to be in charge. We’re not saying women are inferior. He made them to be different. The world wants to make men and women the same, unisex is the idea, because if we can make the women more like the men and the men more like the women so that they’re basically the same, they look the same, they dress the same, they act the same, they do the same, we can what? Deny what God said He did when He made them different, made them to complement one another. Didn’t make two men, didn’t make two women, made them to complement one another, to be fitted to one another. And He made the man to be the leader and to be responsible in leadership and in the theology of the home. And here these women are being influenced and it's evidently happening. And he has two verses on the women. They enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses. Always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Then he goes on to give examples from the Old Testament in the days of Moses.

Now you, verse 10, have followed my teaching. And remember all who desire, verse 12, to live godly will suffer persecution. And remember, verse 16, all Scripture is inspired by God. So all of this has set the framework why there is going to be opposition and persecution, because we’ve become introspective. And if people are saying bad things about our church and people are antagonized by your life, it must be because you are doing something wrong. It might be because we are doing something right. Timothy evidently could become too introspective and thus begin to pull back. Stay focused on the truth, Timothy, it’s God’s Word. It changes lives. Verse 17, it will make the man of God everything that he needs to be, to do everything God wants him to do.

So you come to chapter 4, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom. That’s a solemn charge. Timothy, I want to tell you……… Here he is giving his last words to Timothy in writing. God the Father is here as a witness, His Son is here as a witness. You remember you are going to stand to be judged by Him. There’ll be no excuses, you won’t be able to say I didn’t know. You won’t be able to say Paul didn’t make it clear. There’ll be no place to hide, there’ll be no excuses, Timothy, for a failure to carry this out. Preach the Word, preach the Word. ….Sometimes when I write to fellow pastors I’ll write that Greek expression at the end of the letter, ….. Preach the Word. Simple, isn’t it? Your total responsibility, Timothy, I’ll summarize it for you in three words, and everything will flow out of this. Verse 16 of chapter 3, all Scripture is inspired by God. Preach the Word. I don’t care what you think, I don’t care what surveys say, I don’t care what the felt needs are. Preach the Word.

That book I read to you at the beginning, Norman Vincent Peale, this author says, came to realize he would never get a large crowd, a large church if he preached about sin. Too bad, I think he regrets it now. Preach the Word. I mean what excuse will we have? Well, Lord, it wasn’t working. Covered that. Preach the Word in season and out of season, when people are open to hear it and when people are not open to hear it. Preach the Word. In season means when it is a good time, when people are open and responsive, people are coming to hear it. What am I going to do if people don’t want to hear the Word anymore? They may quit coming, new people don’t come, old people leave. Pretty soon I begin to think, you know Lord there is no sense in my preaching to myself. If I’m just preaching to empty seats, what good is that? So maybe there is something to be said about adopting this therapeutic, psychological approach where we’re going to talk about things that are of interest to them—how to be a success at your job. I listened to one preacher this morning, preaching to 16,000 people sitting there and he says God wants you happy. And on it goes. I say maybe I could say we’re going to reach them where they are and then after they’re here, we’ll reach them in other ways with the gospel. You preach the Word in season and out of season. I’ll preach the Word when it’s in season, and Lord, I’ll help you out when it’s out of season. No. I’m going to have to give an account to the one who will judge the living and dead. Am I going to be able to say and Him understand, are we as a church going to be able to say well Lord it wasn’t clear enough. I mean we really wanted to do your work, we had good intentions. I didn’t ask you to have good intentions, I commanded you to do something. Do it. But Lord, it was out of season. What did I tell you to do when it was out of season? Preach the Word. What about that didn’t you understand? Well, you know, Lord I like to be popular, I like to have people come. You know think of how much more influential I will be if my church is ten times as large as it is. Think of how much more I could have done for you, Lord. Now, I’m doing the Lord’s thinking for Him. Am I not in trouble?

Reprove, rebuke. Oh, Lord, that’s………… Lord, we live in a positive-thinking, possibility-thinking day. People don’t come to be told what’s wrong with them. I read that to you, didn’t I? Key element in most of the mega churches. You realize people don’t come to be condemned. How am I going to reprove them and rebuke them? But that’s what Timothy is told to do. And this is by a man who knows how to do it. Sure, and what kind of congregation does he have? Well there’s a Roman soldier chained to him 24 hours a day. Doesn’t matter, does it?

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. It will take patience, you continue to instruct them with patience. In other words, when they don’t want to hear it, you don’t quit doing it. You keep at it and it will take patience. Why? Look at the next verse, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Now he’s not talking about the unbelieving world, they never have endured sound doctrine, they never were interested and they never do sit under it. You know what Paul’s concerned about? The church and where the church is going, and the influence that’s in the church. Because the more you move away from the preaching of truth, the more you do fill your church with unregenerate people. And the more you fill your church with unregenerate people, you must minister in such a way that will be acceptable to unregenerate people. And you’ll note the people Paul is talking about don’t want to be done with church, they will not endure sound doctrine. The word sound is the word healthy. We get the English word hygiene or hygienic from it. The word doctrine is the word teaching. They won’t endure healthy teaching.

But wanting to have their ears tickled, they still want to go to church, they will accumulate for themselves, and that word accumulate means to pile up in heaps. There will be more of these kind of teachers than you can shake a stick at. They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. When you turn aside from the truth you turn aside from myths. Everything else is a myth. All the stuff I read you here on the sociological principles and all these ideas and that, they’re myths. Because they’ve turned aside from the truth. And the church is the pillar and support of the truth. And the church being involved in preaching the truth. So they turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths. So now you see what happens, now the church is being shaped by those who are teaching what people like to hear. Oh, that’s meeting my needs, that’s helping me to live life, that’s helping me be a better parent, that’s helping me raise teenagers, that’s helping me be better success at my job, that’s………… Wait a minute. You know there’s an element of truth that pervades all heresy that infects the church. It’s true that the ministry of God’s truth meets needs in the biblical sense, because our need is a Savior that can cleanse us from our sin and bring us into right relationship with God. And we as God’s people need His truth to take it in as nourishment for our souls, so that the Spirit of God can take and shape and bring us into conformity to His Son, Jesus Christ. So our lives will indeed be lived according to His will. Which means I will be the right kind of husband, the right kind of father, the right kind of employee or employer and so on. So those things happen as a result of the Spirit of God using the Word of God in a life. The trouble is the church is adopting the world’s version. Like the criticism comes, we don’t just want to preach the Bible and then have people have the stress of having to apply the Bible in their lives. Let’s just skip that and get right to how can you be a proper teenager, here are the things you do. How can you stay away……….. So where does this movement lead to?

Now one of the great outreaches in this whole area is we’re going to help deal with poverty. We’re going to help deal with educational deficiencies. We’re going to help deal with health problems. Now where, did we somewhere leave what the church is? Even like this man writing the book, these are things that the church never saw as its realm, but we’re happy to have it so. That’s what we want to hear. And even those who profess to know and love Jesus Christ find themselves drawn to these things. And really what’s happening is their ears are being tickled, and we’re departing from the truth.

But Timothy, verse 5, you be sober in all things. Endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. That’s your responsibility, Timothy. Fulfill your ministry. It’s not popularity, it’s not what will get the greatest crowd. Fulfill your ministry. That means endure hardship, that means you will be patiently teaching people truth when nobody wants to listen. That means you’ll be doing that when they persecute you, you’ll be sharing Jesus Christ, you’ll be a light shining in the darkness. Paul finds it necessary. Why? Because I’m already being poured out, my life is coming to an end. The process has begun that will end in my execution. Timothy, you’ve got to pick up and carry on. And he did and others have and here we are today, doing what? Opening the truth, studying the truth, sharing the truth, ministering the truth to the youngest and to the oldest. You’re here because somebody shared the truth with you at work, at school, in your neighborhood, invited you to hear the truth. Many have departed, but by God’s grace the truth continues, because Jesus Christ is faithful. He continues to build His church.

Is it worth it? Paul says, I have fought a good fight. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to all those who love His appearing. We’re back to the charge in verse 1, it’s been worth it Timothy. Humanly speaking it looks like I was a miserable failure, there should have been better ways to do the ministry. My whole ministry has come to a conclusion with me in a wretched Roman prison, awaiting execution. But that’s not the end of my ministry, because I’m looking forward to the ultimate reward that the Lord will give me for faithfulness. Was Paul’s ministry a success or a failure? No doubt in our mind, is there? How do we want to end up? How is your life being lived?

We are at the beginning of a new year, I trust we will be a church committed to faithfulness, committed to ministry, not putting our finger in the air, which way is the wind blowing? Well, this is what’s popular today, this is what’s popular today, oh my friends would come if we did this. Oh, I think we’d have a broader outreach if we did that. We want to do everything we can to be effective, but be unfaithful to the truth. If changing the lights would be shown to be effective, fine, we can change the lights. We change the color to purple, I don’t care. We have to do the same thing, right? That’s what the church is, the ministry of truth. Hope that’s why your children are here, because it’s a place where they’ll have the truth built into their lives. Young adults are here because that’s where the truth is going to be preached and built into their lives. Older adults, senior adults, because it’s all about truth. What’s your church about? Truth. What helps you to live life? Truth. What brings you salvation? Truth. May we be a church whose testimony is truth until Christ comes.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for the salvation that is found only in your Son. Thank you, Lord, for the faithful men and women over the centuries who have been faithful to the truth, faithful with the truth, who have endured, who have suffered, who have died, but who have been faithful. Lord, may we not grow weary, may we not develop a spirit of timidity, may we not grow lax and tired. May we count it our highest honor and greatest privilege to be entrusted with the truth of the Savior and given the responsibility and obligation of proclaiming that truth to all people in every place. For we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.