Reading: 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 10 to 17
Ill:
• Four high school boys were late to their morning classes one day.
• It was a day they were supposed to take an important test.
• They entered the classroom and made their excuses;
• They were late because of a flat tire that they had to help their mum repair.
• The experienced teacher, who knew the boys,
• Was not too impressed with their answer.
• She gave them each a piece of paper and a pencil;
• And sent them to four corners of the room.
• Then she told them they would pass if they could answer just one question:
• Which tire was flat???
ill:
• The teenager who brought home a report card heavy with poor grades.
• His mother asked, "What have you to say about this?"
• The boy replied, "Well, one thing is for sure, you know I ain't been cheating!"
Follow those who are true (verses 10-12):
• In the previous verses (I assume you looked at last week);
• Paul has warned about false leaders.
• Now in these verses he reminds Timothy that he did not follow false teachers;
• But instead he followed Paul’s teachings.
• In verse 10 there is a sharp contrast “You” (Greek there is great emphasis on this pronoun),
• Others may be led astray but not you!
Question: How can you tell who is right and who is wrong?
Answer:
• Paul gives us a check-list.
• He mentions 9 characteristics of a true teacher of God.
• Characteristics that were not found in the false teachers;
• But were found in Paul and Timothy.
(1). OPEN lives FOR ALL TO SEE (verse 10).
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance”.
• Timothy had lived and worked with Paul and knew him well.
• Some translations of verse 10 say:
• Message: “You've been a good apprentice to me”.
• Barclay: “You have been my disciple”.
• NEB: “You have followed me step by step”.
Paul reminded Timothy that he knew him ‘inside out’ (true in at least three ways):
• They spent time together physically.
• They experienced good times and bad times, they were together through thick and thin,
• They also spent times together emotionally.
• They were good friends.
• They also spent times together spiritually;
• Paul was a spiritual Father to Timothy.
Paul could say to Timothy in these verses you know my character.
Quote: Charles Swindoll:
“Ministry is a character profession.
To put it bluntly, you can sleep around and still be a good brain surgeon.
You can cheat on your mate and have little trouble continuing to practice law.
Apparently, it is no problem to stay in politics and plagiarize.
You can be a successful salesperson and cheat on your income tax.
But you cannot do those things as a Christian or as a minister and continue enjoying the Lord’s blessing. You must do right in order to have true integrity.
If you can’t come to terms with evil or break habits that continue to bring reproach to the name of Christ, please, do the Lord (and us in ministry) a favour and resign”.
• Paul and Timothy had open lives for all to see!
• When examined they passed the test of Christian character.
(2). They Taught TRUE DOCTRINE (verse 10).
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance”.
• "My teaching" in Paul's case meant the true faith, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Which message had bought them both into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Timothy had been taught by Paul and Paul was consistent in what he taught;
• Because he himself had been taught by God himself:
Ill:
• The father of Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle;
• Was discussing the kind of minister his parish needed,
• He said: “What this parish needs is a man who knows Christ other than second hand”
• Unlike the false teachers that were trying to influence the Church;
• Paul had met the risen Christ face-to-face on the road to Damascus;
• On that day he was commissioned to be an apostle.
• And guided by the Holy Spirit he taught and wrote many books of the New Testament.
As we have mentioned already, Timothy had received his teaching direct from Paul:
• Message: “You've been a good apprentice to me”.
• Barclay: “You have been my disciple”.
• NEB: “You have followed me step by step”.
True doctrine is based on what God has taught us through his apostles:
• Today we would say;
• “What God has taught us in this book”.
(3). THEY PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH (verse 10).
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance”.
• Paul's "manner of life" backed up his messages.
• Quote: William Barcley:
“The Christian life does not consist ONLY in knowing something;
it consists even more in being something”.
Ill:
• There were two doctors with the same name who lived a few doors apart.
• One was a Christian and a lay preacher, the other made no profession of faith.
• One night a rather sick person, who was also a Christian,
• And wanting help from a fellow believer,
• Knocked mistakenly at the door of the non-Christian doctor.
• “Are you the doctor who preaches?” he asked.
• “No”, the medic replied, “I am the doctor who practices”.
• “Oh”, said the sick person, “I’ve always understood the two things were inseparable”.
Paul's "manner of life" backed up his messages.
• He did not preach sacrifice and live in luxury.
• He gave to others far more than he received from them.
• He stood up for the truth;
• Even when it meant losing friends and, in the end, losing his life.
• Paul consistently ‘walked the talk’. He practiced what he preached.
• And Timothy had been his companion shared this lifestyle with him on many occasions.
(4). THEIR PURPOSE IS TO glorify GOD (vs 10).
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance”.
Quote: St. Francis de Sales:
“Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, wear a feather in their hat or are dressed in a fine suit of clothes. Who does not see the folly of this?
If there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird and the tailor.”
Paul was never too impressed with Paul; but he was always very impressed with his God:
• Ill: 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 10: “When I am weak, I am strong!”
• Ill: Philippians chapter 4 verse 13: “I can do everything through CHRIST….strength”
There was never a question about Paul's "purpose" in ministry:
• He wanted to do God's will and finish the work God gave him to do;
• (Acts chapter 20 verse 24; Philippians chapter 1 verse 21).
• Paul was a man of "faith. who trusted God to meet his needs.
• He was a man of "long-suffering" who bore up under people's attacks.
• He was a man of love ("charity') -who willingly gave himself to serve others.
(5). THEY ARE WILLING TO Suffer (vs 11-12).
(The Message):
“Troubles, sufferings-suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! 12Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it.”
• Paul cites three instances when he suffered for Christ:
• He was driven from Antioch, Pisidia (Acts chapter 13 verse 50),
• He had to flee from Iconium to avoid lynching (Acts chapter 14 verse 5-6),
• In Lystra he was stoned and left for dead (Acts chapter 14 verse 19),
• All 3 instances happened in the district that Timothy lived in,
• Who knows? He may have been an eye-witness to them.
• Timothy certainly would have known about them;
• And was willing to identify with and work with Paul, despite the consequences.
Following Christ in a hostile world means encountering opposition:
• Jesus himself said; “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”
• Matthew chapter 5 verse 12.
• And Paul in his letters to some of the other Churches;
• e.g. 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 4 warned them to expect opposition.
Quote Amy Carmichael (18-67-1951):
• Missionary in India for 55 years;
• Author of 35 books,
• Worked among girls who were victims of sexual-abuse, or temple prostitution.
• Help with the babies born as a result of the temple prostitution.
• On numerous occasions she faced legal charges of kidnapping,
• And often faced physical threats.
• Following a serious fall;
• She spent the last the last twenty years of her life as an invalid.
“Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spend,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound, no scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wounds nor scar?”
(b). Continue in God's Word (vs 13-17);
• Paul concludes this section of his letter,
• With an appeal to Timothy to remain loyal to the teaching he had received.
(The Message):
“Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.
14But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers-- 15why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. 17Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us”.
Quote: D.L. Moody:
“The best way to show that a stick is crooked is to place it next to a straight stick”.
The best way to counteract error is to expose it to the truth.
• The only way a believer will be able to tell the truth from the false;
• Is by knowing the Word of God.
• Timothy had been taught the Word of God from a child.
• Chapter 1 verse 5 reminds us both his mother and grandmother were Jewish believers.
• They had both faithfully taught him the Old Testament Scriptures;
• The word "those" in verse 14 is plural referring to these women.
• Timothy was to continue in what he had been taught.
• We never outgrow the Word of God.
Ill:
• Menekil II was born in 1844,
• He was one of the greatest rulers in African history and the creator of modern Ethiopia.
• He was captured during an enemy raid and held prisoner for 10 years.
• After escaping, he declared himself head of the province of Shewa.
• He began conquering neighbouring kingdoms;
• And developed them into modern Ethiopia with himself as emperor.
• When Italy tried to take over Ethiopia;
• Menekil’s army met and crushed the Italians at the Battle of Aduwa.
• This victory, as well as his efforts to modernize Ethiopia (schools, telephones, railroads),
• Made Menekil II world-famous.
Yet the emperor had one little known eccentricity.
• Whenever he was feeling ill, he would eat a few pages of the Bible,
• Insisting that this always restored his health.
• One day in December, 1913,
• Recovering from a stroke and feeling extremely ill,
• He had the entire book of Kings torn from an Egyptian edition of the Bible,
• And he ate every page of it—and then died.
Paul encouraged Timothy to keep feeding on the word of God:
• Feeding as in the sense of reading, thinking, mediating, studying etc.
• Not physically eating it!
• And to encourage him to carry on doing this;
• Paul makes some important statements about the Scriptures.
(1). THEY Are the HOLY SCRIPTURES (verse 15).
“And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures”
The expression “Holy Scriptures” literally means "The sacred letters".
• The suggestion in this verse is that Timothy youngster;
• Learned his Hebrew alphabet by spelling his way through the Old Testament Scriptures.
Quote: William Barcley:
It was the glory of the Jews that their children from their earliest days were trained in the law. They claimed that their children learned the law even from their swaddling clothes and drank it in with their mother’s milk. They claimed that the law was so imprinted on the heart and mind of a Jewish child that he would sooner forget his own name than he would forget it”
The word for; 'holy;' means "consecrated for sacred use".
• Ill: Holiness preacher.
• The Bible is different from every other book;
• Because it has been set apart by God for special sacred uses.
(2). THE Scriptures LEAD US TO SALVATION (vs 15).
“And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”.
• Note: we are not saved by believing the Bible;
• But by trusting the Christ who is revealed in the Bible.
Ill:
• Timothy was raised on the Holy Scriptures in a godly home.
• Yet it was not until Paul led him to Christ that he was saved.
• Satan knows the Bible (e.g. quoted it to Eve in the Garden & Jesus in the desert);
• But he obviously is not saved.
• The religious leaders of Jesus’ day knew their Bibles;
• E.g. John chapter 5 verse 39.
“You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40but you refuse to come to me for eternal life”.
• So we are not saved by believing the Bible;
• But by trusting the Christ who is revealed in the Bible.
• But without the Bible we would not know about Christ;
• So it is a book of life that informs us of how to be saved!
• From Genesis to Revelation it is a book of salvation;
• God’s rescue plan for a world gone wrong.
(3). THE SCRIPTURES ARE TRUE + DEPENDABLE (vs 16A).
• The false teachers came onto the scene claiming special insight;
• They claimed to have received knowledge from mystical sources.
• Paul makes a very clear distinction between their man made books & experiences;
• And God’s revealed word.
Verse 16:
• "All Scripture is God-breathed" (NIV).
• “Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word” (CEV.).
• “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (KJB).
The doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture is vitally important:
• It is a doctrine that Satan has attacked from the beginning;
• Genesis chapter 3 verse 1: "Did God really say?"
If you think about it logically:
• It is inconceivable that God would give His people a book they could not trust.
• He is after all the God of truth (Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4);
• Jesus claimed to be "the truth”. (John chapter 14 verse 6);
• And the Bible also calls the "Holy Spirit of truth”.. (1 John chapter 5 verse 6).
• If then this book is not true;
• It contradicts everything we know concerning God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit!
I want this evening to go deeper into this idea of inspiration:
• For now we will leave it there;
• Pick up on the theme tonight.
Note:
• But I will say when we of "inspiration" we must not think of it as the world thinks;
• e.g. when it says; "Shakespeare was certainly an inspired writer."
What we mean by biblical inspiration:
• Is that the Holy Spirit guided and breathed upon the Bible's writers;
• Which guaranteed that what they wrote was accurate and trustworthy.
• Truth through personality;.
(4). THE SCRIPTURES ARE PROFITABLE (vs 16B).
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”.
Paul tells Timothy that the Bible is profitable in 4 ways:
• They are profitable for “teaching” or “doctrine” (what is right),
• For “rebuking” or “reproof” (what is not right),
• For “correcting” or “correction” (how to get right),
• And for “training in righteousness” or “instruction in righteousness” (how to stay right).
Any Christian who studies the Bible and applies what they learn;
• Will grow in holiness and avoid many of the pitfalls that seek to trip us up.
• It is a map, a lamp, a light…everything we need for direction in life.
(5). THE SCRIPTURES EQUIP US FOR SERVICE (vs 17).
“So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
• The study of the Bible must never be selfish,
• Simply for the good of the person studying it.
• We study so that we might make ourselves useful to God and useful to other people.
• The end result should be a deeper love for God and a deeper love for other people.
The word translated ‘equipped” (N.I.V) “perfect” (KJB) was a familiar Greek word in New Testament times:
• Doctors knew it because it meant ‘to set a broken bone’.
• Fishermen knew it for it meant ‘to mend a broken net’.
• Sailors knew it for it meant ‘to outfit a ship for voyage’.
• Soldiers knew it because it meant ‘to equip an army for battle’.
The word of God when studied and applied can equip each Christian:
• To set the broken bones in our lives so that we can walk straight in life.
• It can repair the breaks in the nets so that we might catch fish and win souls.
• It can equip us for battle so that we can stand firm in the storms of life.
Ill:
• Gipsy Smith told of a man who said;
• He had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had
• “Gone through it several times.”
• “Let it go through you once,” replied Smith, “then you will tell a different story!”
