Good morning church family. If you have your Bible I would ask you to go ahead
and make your way to the book of 2 Timothy. Today we will be looking at 2
Timothy 4: 1-5. My name is Mikey, I am a member here at GCF and have been for
a few years now. My wife Brooke, and our 5 children love this church, and I
always count it as an honor when I have the opportunity to preach.
Pastor Ken did a great job last week as we worked our way through the closing of
chapter 3. And one passage that we looked at in particular was chapter 3 vs. 16-
17.
There was a family that joined about 3 weeks ago, and as they stood up on the
stage and were sharing their faith and what they believe, brother said, we believe
in the sufficiency of scripture. I was in the back, I said amen! And that is really
what this passage gets to. All Scripture, not some scripture is from God.
[2Ti 3:16-17 ESV] 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that
the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We rightly believe that when we armed with the word of God we have
EVERYTHING we need for God to accomplish everything he wills to do in our
lives. We really don’t need anything else.
The word of God is the center piece of Church. And is delivered by the man of
God, the preacher. There is no greater calling, there is no more important
assignment, there is no greater need.
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One of my heros of the faith is Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones said it this way in his book
“Preachers and Preaching”, “The primary task of the church and of the Christian
minister is the preaching of the word of God”.
As Paul is writing this, We know he is nearing the end of his time here on earth.
In fact this is likely the last writing that we have. And as I studied this passage this
week, I gave some thought to how I might handle my final hours on earth.
And I pictured myself maybe in a room, surrounded by those that I love. Perhaps a
spouse, parents, or children, or even close friend perhaps would have gathered
around. Have you ever wondered how you might feel in those moments. When
you don’t have much time left, and there is so much that you wanted to say to your
children, but time will just not allow. And you realize in those moments the
difficult times that perhaps your loved ones will have to go on to face. And you
realize you will not be there to help. You will not be able share guidance or bear
burdens because your time has come to an end. What would you say in those last
moments? I think if you get this picture in your mind, then you are close to feeling
exactly like Paul feels as he pens the last words to Timothy. And so what will he
say, what is his closing plea to make sure that he leaves young Timothy headed in
the right direction.
Paul knows all too well the dangers that are facing the church. He himself has
been imprisoned and stoned. He has seen the false teachers and he knows what
they aim to do. He has seen false converts defect from the church. And with all of
this on his mind, his eyes fix on Timothy, what possible advice can he give?
[2Ti 4:1-5 ESV] 1 I 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: 2
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and
exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when
people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn
away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always
be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry.
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First, I want to talk about the structure of the passage, because that helps me digest
and organize the thoughts in my mind. In verse 1, Paul lays out an overarching
charge that sets the tone of the passage. Then in verse two we have the main
imperative statement of the entire passage. What is Timothy supposed to do? He is
to “preach the word”. Highlight and double underline in. That is the title of the
message, and that is Pauls main point. Preach the word.
And the rest of the passage simply explains “how” Timothy is to preach the word.
So there are 8 or so imperatives that come after that explain how the Pastor is to
preach. And we are going to go thru these this morning. Let’s look at verse 1.
[2Ti 4:1-5 ESV] 1 I 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:
We see the first verb is “charge”. It’s an important word and one we don’t use
very often. Can you imagine if you walked around telling people they are charged
to do something for you. They would think that you are crazy. The language used
here is a military term. In today’s term an officer might say “this is an order!”.
This assignment is not optional. There is no negotiation. Timothy must be all ears
because what Paul is about to say is important.
He goes on to say “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.” It is as if he steps
the importance up yet another notch. Paul borrows language in this phrase from a
Roman court room. In that day if you were charged with a crime you would be
given instruction of your court date, of the crime that was committed, and this
summons would say something like in the presence of the honorable judge so and
so. It is as if we are being reminded of this task that Paul is about to lay out is a
formal task. It is not optional. And none other than the Holy trinity itself will stand
and take account.
Verse 1 says he is the judge of “the living and the dead”. The idea here goes back
to God as the judge of all mankind.
[2Co 5:10 ESV] 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so
that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether
good or evil.
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Paul sets the tone for this charge as one of grave importance. This task of
preaching for both Timothy and all men who would be called to follow after is not
to be taken lightly. In fact, this judge mentioned here in verse 1 will judge these
preachers with even greater scrutiny. This concept of preachers being judged in a
special way is not just here take a look at James 3:1.
[Jas 3:1 ESV] 1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you
know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
One of my favorite preachers in church history is none other than Dr. Martyn
Lloyd Jones. He was an outstanding physician in London, and even as a young
man was promoted to chief clinical assistant to the King. Sounds like pretty
important work right?
When I came here, people said to me: ‘Why give up good work – a good
profession – after all, the medical profession, why give that up? If you had been a
bookie, for instance, and wanted to give that up to preach the gospel, we should
understand and agree with you and say that you were doing a grand thing. But
medicine – a good profession, healing the sick and relieving pain!’ One man even
said this, ‘If you were a lawyer and gave it up, I’d give you a pat on the back, but
to give up medicine!
MLJ said about this ‘if you knew more about the work of a doctor, you would
understand. We but spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their
sin!’ I saw men on their sick beds, I spoke to them of their immortal souls, they
promised grand things. Then they got better and back they went to their old sin! I
saw I was helping these men to sin and I decided that I would do no more of it. I
want to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is all
right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right for
sixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of hell. Ah, yes! we have
sometimes to give up those which are good for that which is the best of all – the
joy of salvation and newness of life.
5
MLJ had no problem leaving behind a physician for an earthly king, because he
knew that call he received to be a preacher for the king of kings was far more
important work.
So that is verse 1, it sets the stage, it provides the mood, the lighting of everything
we are about to discuss. Verse 2.
Preach the word. Underline this. We said this phrase is the main imperative of the
text. Not just for Timothy but all preachers will be judged based on how true they
were to the command. Preach the word.
The Greek verb for preach here is Keruso. And it means to herald. Back in those
days when there was an order from the King, perhaps a meeting that needed to
take place in a particular village, they didn’t have a website or a newspaper to
share information. There would be assigned heralds. Who would move out into the
busy parts of towns, into the markets and they would begin to shout, attention
attention, and they would pass along the information. It was a public proclamation,
given to all could hear, That is the idea about what it is to preach.
But Paul does not permit the preacher to herald just anything, he says preach the
word. You may think that should be obvious, but let me tell you it is not. There
may be a temptation by a pastor, perhaps even by pressure of his congregation to
do so something other than preach the word. Paul speaks of the entire council of
scripture. Both the OT and the NT are included. It would be a grave error to
exclude any part of the word. “All scripture is God breathed”.
I want to stop here and say why I am thankful that our church teaches verse by
verse through entire books of the Bible... Growing up topical. Strawman sermons
on easy texts. It was rare to deal with difficult passages or work through things the
pastor or congregation was struggling to comprehend. A pastor who preaches a
shallow message will only develop a shallow congregation. 7 out of 10 youth will
walk away from the faith after they move out of their parents home. Could some
of that be that we just won’t go deep in the word. To help them understand
everything they are seeing in the world, taught in schools, through the lense of real
deep understanding.
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If anything of power, of God is to happen in our church it must happen through the
power that comes from obedience to this command, Preach the word. We can get
caught up in numbers, in strategy, in surveys, and start looking at all the wrong
things. To fufill the imperative in this verse, the church must be a church that is
committed to the power of preaching as the centerpiece. The church has the task to
make dead men come alive.
So now we look at the question of how the pastor is to preach. He is to be ready in
season and out of season. This is the second command or imperative. Did you
know there is no season that is not either in season or out of season? That’s all the
seasons. The preacher is to always be ready to go. The verb here has a suddenness
to it. It is like a soldier who has been put on alert. His bags are packed he is ready
to deploy he simply stands by the phone for his orders. He is ready to go, that is
the picture here.
This applies to pastors mainly, but we as the congregation can certainly apply it as
well. If our day to day life is marked by disobedience. If we are neglecting the
word, if we are neglecting to spend time in prayer. If we are living in a perpetual
state of sin, then how on earth can we be ready. It’s easy to get ready for a single
event right. We can clean ourselves up and get it together for 1 maybe 2 days a
week, but Paul says the preacher is to be ready 24/7. Not an easy thing to do, but
this is the standard by which they will be judged.
Okay more imperatives coming up that answer the question “How is the word to
be preached?” We will group the next 3 together because they are sort of similar
or related. Still in verse 3 we have:
reprove, rebuke, and exhort. This is basically 2 negatives and a positive. Firstly,
lets look at reprove. We just saw reprove back in 2 Tim 3:16. It means to correct
misbehavior or to correct false doctrine. It can almost be thought of more as a
head knowledge correction. Or to helps someone think about something rightly.
Next we have rebuke. It is closely related, but it deals more with the heart. It
carries more of the idea of the heart. When the pastor rebukes he is bringing the
congregation under conviction.
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This is one of the fundamental differences between teaching and preaching. If I
am teaching you an idea or a passage of scripture I’m just talking to you so that
you understand the idea that I am trying to communicate, but if am preaching and
I am rebuking you now we have the will and the heart and conviction all taking
place. It is something entirely different.
Exhort. This is the positive. Parakaleo. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is referred to as
Paraklyte. Which is to say that he is our helper. So Exort or parakaleo is to come
along aside and lovingly encourage.
With complete patience and teaching. The preacher is not to be irritable or
impatient. Even if progress is slow and painful. I think back to Jesus and his
disciples. Things were slow. Those guys sometimes were just slow. And he
always taught with patience.
Phil Robertson movie, Blind. Phil was bad. Phil had already turned away the
preacher. Phil bought a bar. Preacher came in the bar. Phil throws him out and is
borderline abusive to his wife and family. He ends up throwing them out. And Phil
hits rock bottom. Pastors be patient. Wives be patient. Husbands be patient. Ms.
Kay aske the reverend to go back and talk to him one more time.
Vs 3 the preacher is to preach with urgency, “For the time is coming”. Throughout
church history there have certainly been ebs and flows. Times of falling away, and
there have been times of great revival. But I think the overall trend as time goes on
is that more and more people turn from God. Paul says to Timothy, hey it’s the 2
minute warning. It’s time to score because time is of the essence. The time is
coming, and I believe now more than ever the time has come where:
People will not endure sound teaching. Some translations use the pronoun “they”
here. The ESV says people, but in either case I think we should consider who
these people are that don’t endure sound teaching. At first I thought it was simply
the everybody in the world, but I don’t think that is exactly right. You see people
who don’t go to church have never endured sound teaching or doctrine. So I think
the people that are discussed here are what I call “church going people”. These are
people who fill the seats and the pews of various congregations each and every
8
Sunday all throughout the world. By context that is the only way this really can be
read I think. And when we think about the parable of the wheat and the tares we
know that these congregations, sometimes entire congregations are made of lost
people.
And so as we look around the world, as we look around the churches in the low
country, as we look around right here at GCF, what is it that distinguishes those
who have been born again from those who have not. I believe it is a love and an
embrace for true sound doctrine. Paul says the day is coming when they won’t
tolerate the true word. Many times a false convert is easy to spot because they
have no love for the truth of Scripture. Sound doctrine shines a magnifying glass
on the wickedness of our sin.
Paul says they have “itching ears”. Have you ever had someone ask for your true
opinion and the second that they realize you don’t agree with them they stop
listening to you. These unconverted church goers don’t want to be confronted with
the weight of a Holy God and a wicked sinner. So with itching ears they seek out
someone to tell them exactly what they want to hear.
The text says they “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
passions”. I don’t know if there has ever been a more obvious time where this has
played out in front of us. There is a welcoming congregation for every lifestyle of
sin.
And the pulpits are filled with people who not only won’tt mention the sin, but
they will contort scripture and tell you that it is not sin at all.
Sin of greed. My pastor never preaches about money because he just says he lets
God deal with that.
Self-help and prosperity focused churches are filled with people who want nothing
to do with sermons that rebuke and reprove.
I remember I was flipping through the channels and I ran across a Pastor who was
preaching to a church that was literally meeting in a football stadium, and it was
full. I was shocked as I heard the sermon. The Bible was not even required for
what the man was saying. And I remember thinking how can thousands and
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thousands of people sit here with a Bible in there hand and not realize that this is
not the gospel?
You know why... I know now. Paul just told me. The day is coming when they
won’t tolerate sound doctrine but they will accumulate ear tickling preachers. Here
you have 10s of thousands of people having their ears tickle, and it is exactly what
they want to hear.
For preachers, it’s not easy to say the hard things. For true believers that sit here
today, don’t fall into this trap where you avoid the hard work of searching your
heart for sin. This is why we are here.
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. The
verb here that is translated “turn away” has a medical connotation of a dislocated
joint. It is as a person turns away so quickly that they snap their neck out of joint.
These folks are so turned off by sound doctrine or sound teaching that they snap
their necks to turn away from it.
These false converts then wander off into myths. I think there is principle that is
being taught in verse 4 that if you don’t fill your mind with sound doctrine, your
mind will be increasingly susceptible to believe a lie. (garden of eden example) By
not filling yourself with sound doctrine, or preachers without preaching sound
doctrine create in the congregation a vulnerability to deception.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Finally Paul says to be sober minded. This is to be level headed.
Endure suffering. It is not a question of if suffering will occur. Faithful preachers
who preach the word become a lightning rod for suffering. Paul knows suffering
very well and even as he writes these words his suffering continues. It is a
reminder to those who do the work of ministry, not just preachers, but especially
those who preach, ministry comes at a cost.
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Do the work of an evangelist. This is the 8
th imperative. It is the call to the preacher
that he must share the gospel of salvation. Its interesting that Paul doesn’t call him
to be an evangelist, but to do the work of an evangelist. It is as if he wants him to
remember, in everything you do as a preacher, you must also in that do the work
that evangelist would do.
Simply put, the pastor is to help people come to terms with their sinfulness. To
understand that they are separated from God. To call all who have ears to hear that
the time is now to repent and to trust in Christ for salvation.
Fulfil your ministry. Do everything God has stored up for you, every good work to
the fullness of your ability.
This text of course is primarily for preachers, but we as the congregation have a
role to fill as well. We must participate in the process of sanctification.
Let’s pray.
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