2 Timothy 3:10-17

[0:00] But we're going to pick up reading in verse 10, 2 Timothy chapter 3. He says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And we'll stop reading there. If you back back up to verse 10 though and begin reading back there again, he says, But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of loud purpose faith, long suffering charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at

[1:34] Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endure, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. So as I said at the beginning of this chapter, he's given Timothy some warning of things that are going to happen in Timothy's days. And these were things that Paul had encountered himself in his own ministry. Paul would go to these places, not just at Antioch and not just at Lystra and not just in Iconium. It was everywhere that Paul went. He was met with resistance. He was, and why was he met with resistance? Because he was preaching this man, Jesus Christ. He was preaching the very one that stopped him on that Damascus road that we were talking about. When Jesus Christ stopped him, he said that there was a loud, he couldn't see, there was a voice that only he could hear. All these things happened unto Paul and by Jesus said, Paul, Paul, why persecute us now, me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. It's hard for you to kick against these goats that I'm prodding you with. It's hard for you to kick against the truth that you know that's precisely what Jesus

[2:50] Christ was telling Paul when he stopped him on that Damascus road. But Paul here telling Timothy, you know these afflictions that I've suffered. You know the persecution that I've suffered. But take heart, Timothy, you take heart, take hold on this fact. You rest easy in this that the Lord, my God, delivered me out of every affliction. He delivered me out of every persecution, delivered me out of things that other men would have probably perished in. But God delivered me, the Lord delivered me, Timothy. So when you find yourself in these same circumstances, you find yourself under this same strain of the gospel and of the ministry. Don't you worry about a thing as the Lord God delivered me, Timothy. He will deliver you as well. That's exactly what Paul was trying to get across to Timothy here that in the ministry. And as I said, it doesn't take a preacher. It doesn't take a dinkus. We've all got our ministries. We've all got people that we talk to.

[3:59] We've all got people that we share the gospel with. And it doesn't matter if you come under persecution, if you come under rejection, if you come under any kind of strain that you do, it doesn't matter because the Lord God will deliver you just as he did Paul out of the persecution that that man suffered. This wasn't just for pastors. It was for everyone, everyone that ministers the gospel. As I've said, it doesn't take a preacher to do it. We have all got a ministry of some kind. Some people's ministry is to sing. Some people's ministry is to be a dakin, or to be a teacher. Some of them's to be a pastor. Some of them's to be an evangelist. Some of them's to be this and some of them's to be that. But we've all got a purpose that God has put in our life.

[4:54] It's a purpose that he will fulfill. Hey, he would have never called you to do it if he didn't intend on equipping you to get the job done. But God had called Timothy to preach. Obviously, he had called Paul to preach. Obviously, he had called Peter. He had called the other disciples to preach and he equipped them with what they needed to get the job done. Not only did he equip them with a word, not only did he equip them with the spirit, but he equipped them with other brothers and other sisters in Christ that could help them along the way, that could encourage them, that could help them. However, that they can't. That's something that we need to pray on a daily basis. Is God help me to be a help to my brothers and my sisters in Christ? Help me to not be a stumbling block.

[5:50] Don't let me be a hindrance. Help me to be a help. Hallelujah. If I get up here and preach and they don't help somebody, they're something wrong. They're something wrong with the message or the messenger maybe. If it's not a help, there's two reasons that the gospel is preached. One to help those that are already saved and another to draw those that are lost. And if one of those two things don't happen, that message is in vain. God help me. Help me not to do that. Day and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution verse 12. All. They ain't no ifs, ifs, and buts there folks. There ain't no room for any kind of play or any kind of leeway there.

[6:40] All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If Jesus Christ suffered persecution while he lived here and ministered on this earth, what makes us think that we're not going to do the same? And it's not only persecution as far as how we think of persecution, as far as people coming against us, as far as people making fun of us, people wanting to hurt us, people wanting to do this and do that to us. That's not the only thing folks that we are susceptible to, but not only are we guaranteed that we will suffer some persecution in this life as a child of God, but folks it's going to be, there's going to be some agony come upon us, there'll be sickness come upon us, there'll be heartache come upon us, all of these things are going to happen to the child of God.

[7:33] There is no such thing as living a bed of roses here on this earth for the lost or the same. There is no such thing as a cakewalk life. There is no such thing as a perfect walk. There is no such thing as any of these as long as we are here in this world. It won't happen. It will not happen, but all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Jesus Christ suffered another persecution. I ain't talking about him hanging on the cross at Calvary. That was the culmination of his persecution. That was the culmination of the entire thing of his entire ministry here on earth, but both as he ministered he suffered persecution. He couldn't perform miracles without somebody coming against him. The scribes will come against him. The Pharisees will come against him. The chief priests will come against him. Everyone or someone that was guaranteed would come against Christ. If he healed a blind man, somebody would question it. If he healed a man, would drop sick, someone would question it. If he healed a man with palsy, someone would question it.

[8:45] I can think that there were dozens different things that Jesus did that were miraculous, but somebody was waiting in the shadows to come against him. It'll be no different from me or you.

[9:00] Somebody will be there to bring us down. Over in the gospels, back up several boats to the gospels, you read all these things that we just talked about. Jesus healed blind people. Jesus healed lame people. Jesus doing all these miraculous works, and a lot of them pointed specifically from the Old Testament to Jesus as Messiah in the New Testament. A lot of them did that. It said that he would heal the lame. It said that he would cause the blind to see, and it said that he would cause the lame to walk, and all of these other things, it pointed directly at him as Messiah.

[9:42] Nevertheless, that Sanhedrin and those chief priests and those Pharisees and everyone else, they would still come against Jesus, and those were the people that knew the scriptures the best, and they would still come against Jesus. They would persecute him. They would rail against him.

[9:57] They would say, all men are evil against him. They would say, he's casting out these demons by Bielzebub. This man hath Bielzebub. They were accusing Jesus Christ, the maker of the world, of being possessed by the devil. That's the kind of persecution the man suffered, but Jesus had answers for every one of them. He had answers for them, especially that one.

[10:19] He said, if I cast out demons by demons, that kingdom won't stand. It'll fall. He said, the house divided against itself cannot stand. That was true words. Folks said, it's no different now. A church divided against itself cannot stand. That's why one church will split three different ways over the color of the pews inside or over the color of the carpet, or whether or not they should have seal in fans, because that house is divided against itself, and it cannot stand. It cannot survive. That 100 people will become 30 people in a moment of time if we let stuff like that get in the way. And I ain't fussing at the church. I ain't heard nothing like it since I've been here, and I praise God for that. I've told Missy, I've told Missy, let me take a break for just a second. I've told Missy, I said, yeah, and I brought it up to you all too. It aggravates me. Seven, eight, ten people show up, and I preach to you. I do my best to preach to you. I do my best to present the word of God. Sometimes I teach, sometimes I preach.

[11:31] A few times we've just had song services. I do my best to spiritually lead you people as best as I can, as best with the gift that God has given me to do so. Yes, it aggravates me, but it could be a whole lot worse. I said, because I ain't pastoring 100 people that are at each other's strokes all the time. It could be 10 times worse than just having a few people show up for service.

[11:54] So when I bring these things up, don't y'all think I'm mad at you? And don't think that I've got all to get you because that's not the case. I think God that the people here get along, and they get along well. I praise the good Lord for that. That shows unity, and we're supposed to have unity. We're supposed to come to church in one mind and one accord to worship our God. Our God's one and we're the body of Christ, our one. We should worship as one. When we sang songs earlier, we did that as one body of Christ, as one little small group of believers. But I hope that rung the bells up there in heaven somewhere. I hope that the bells of praise got rung up there in heaven somewhere. I hope God looked down upon us, and I hope he was thrilled to pieces with what he saw with just a few believers in the middle of Johnson City, Tennessee, singing a few songs and praise to him, regardless of how loud or how low we sing, regardless of whether we were in tune or not. God doesn't look on those things. He looks at the motive behind those things. He looks at the reason behind those things. Do these people love me or are they doing it for a show? I think he saw people that were doing it because they love. They all that will live God's name Christ Jesus suffer persecution. As I said, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ suffered persecution. More than one hand.

[13:20] We think of his persecution there on the cross before it started long before that. It started long before that. When he was a tiny baby, when he was a tiny boy, there was a king that was going to kill everybody in the land two years old and under. And God made a way for Joseph to take him and marry down to Egypt. And when that king died, he sent word. He said, hey, hey, it's safe to move back home now. It's safe to go back up yonder where you belong. That king's out of the picture.

[13:50] And they did. That's God taking care of his own. That's God taking care of God. As Paul told Timothy here, that the Lord had delivered him out of all those persecutions. Hey, God began delivering Jesus out of persecution before the boy was even three years old. He was at the most two years old at that time. That was God delivering him. Most God will deliver us, but it does not say anywhere in scripture that we will not have persecutions and that we will not have hard times, that we will not have these things come upon us. It says that God will deliver us. And what do we do? We look at people in the scripture, or we look at the disciples and how they were martyred. We look at Stephen, who I brought up earlier, that was martyred for doing what, for speaking the truth.

[14:42] He spoke the truth to a council there, told them, hey, you crucified the Messiah. You don't want him killed him after he'd given an entire history of Israel within just a couple of chapters there in the book of Acts. He told those people, you've crucified this man. You've killed him.

[14:59] His blood's on your hands. You're guilty of this. And they stoned him because he told him the truth. But hey, that was a way for God to deliver him out of that persecution. For when Stephen was being stoned, what did he see? It says that he looked up and he had the face of an angel. And he said he saw Jesus stand at the right hand of God to receive him into the heavens. And what did Stephen say? He said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. He was being delivered. He was being delivered. If we're being delivered, there ain't no reason to have hate for our neighbor that's coming against us. If we're promised deliverance, there ain't no reason to want vengeance against our neighbor who wants to come against us. If we know that we've got deliverance in Christ Jesus our Lord, there is no reason for us to have a hateful attitude toward anyone if deliverance is promised. I'm glad to say praise God that the same God that shook the lion's mouth, the same God that part of the Red Sea, and the same God that took down the walls of

[16:04] Jericho is the God that promises to deliver me. Amen. It's the same God. Hallelujah. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. Deceiving and being deceived. Evil men and seducers. Now, when we think of seducers, we naturally think we're all dulled in here. We naturally think of the sexual aspect of seduction. That ain't what Paul's talking about here. He's talking about men creeping in. He's talking about men creeping into the churches, creeping into the, and remember folks, they didn't have church buildings then. If they, if they didn't meet, meeting a building of some kind, it was called a synagogue and that was a Jewish meeting where it was over in the temple and that was a Jewish meeting. They would meet in houses at this time. They would go to other believers' houses and meet. This is, this is where house prayer meetings and college prayer meetings, that's where all this got started was in the first century church. They would meet at one another's houses, but he says that evil men and seducers, they will all wax worse and worse. Be careful of these evil men. Be careful of these seducers that can creep into the congregations, they can creep it and the things that they say will almost fit with scripture. They will almost sound like God. They will almost sound like miracles. They will almost sound like all these things, but these are evil men, they are seducers and they will wax worse and worse as the days go on. If they were bad in the days of Paul and Timothy, how much worse are they to dead?

[17:46] Turn on your TV, listen to the radio, listen to some of these preachers and the garbage that they're preaching and we will know how much worse it has gotten. Preach Christ, preach in crucified and nothing else. Amen. That's what it takes. Yeah. Now y'all might say it was a picture, you ain't preach Christ crucified yet. Folks, what is Christ crucified? It's everything that led up to that crucifixion and it's everything that's happened after that crucifixion. It is the life, the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ and him crucified is everything about Christ. Why was he crucified? Because of the life that he lived. He was crucified because of how he preached, because of how he taught, because of the things that he said. That's why he was crucified. Y'all have probably seen the same things, oh, mine that I had. Let's say if Christ preached like most pastors and most preachers nowadays, he would have never been crucified and folks, unfortunately, that's the truth of the matter. If he preached the same vomit, that one of the pulpits that we hear today, they would have never wanted to kill the man.

[19:00] But he didn't. He preached conviction. He preached repentance. The first word that the man ever preached was repenting for the kingdom of heaven is a hand. The first word Jesus Christ ever preached was repent and he preached repent through his entire ministry. When the disciples went out and preached, they preached repentance. When the apostles went out, they preached repentance and preachers nowadays, they need to preach repentance because repentance is what is going to get the job done. The blood of Jesus Christ, yes, it cleanses us from all sin. It cleanses us from all righteousness. What does it take for that to happen? It takes a repentant heart.

[19:42] It takes someone repentant. We cannot be cleaned by the blood of Jesus on Sunday and by Monday, being back out doing the exact same things that we were doing. If that was the case, we never got cleansed. If that's the case, we never got saved. If that's the case, and folks, I'm not talking about just going out and messing up and sinning. I don't know how you'd want to phrase that. I'm talking about willful sin. I'm talking about people going to revival meeting on Friday night and they get saved and then Saturday night, they're right back out at the bars. They never got saved. If that's the case, they're right back out the strip club. They never got saved. If that's the case, they're right back hanging out in the back street corners with a needle hanging out their arm. Hey, they never got saved. If that's the case, I'm talking about that willful sin in such manners as that.

[20:35] If they got saved, they'll have some conviction laid on their heart. If they got saved, the Holy Ghost is going to show them, hey, you don't need to be doing this in your life anymore. Hey, and we might look at that as persecution by the Holy Ghost. That ain't persecution. That's all money, God saying you're now my child. Act like it. Act like you're mine. But continue though the things which I've learned and I've spent a share of knowing of whom though I've learned now. And that from a child, though I've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise and to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. He mentioned two things there. Excuse me, that are of utmost importance. He says, from a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures. Folks, Paul was writing the Holy Scripture here and didn't even know it. He didn't realize this was going to be part of the canon of Scripture. What's he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament. He's talking about what they had at that time. He's talking about the Pentateuch, Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus,

[21:46] Numbers, Deuteronomy. He's talking about Psalms. He's talking about Proverbs. He's talking about the prophets. He's talking about all these things. That's the Holy Scriptures he's referred to. He says, from a child, you've known these things. From a child, you've known the law. You've known what God expects of you. What is he warning about here? He's warning about evil men and seducers, those that don't follow the law, those that pay no attention to the law, those that could care less about the law. He's warning about those people. He says, from a child, you have known these Holy Scriptures, but he says that faith in Jesus Christ that is on the salvation, it's faith in those Scriptures that leads on the salvation, not the Scriptures themselves. That's what the Pharisees dependent on. That's what the Sadducees dependent on. That's what the Chief Priest dependent on.

[22:39] What's the Scriptures? What did Christ tell them? He said, he searched the Scriptures thinking in them you have eternal life, but they are they which test the power of me. It's faith in the Scriptures, faith in the Scripture, not faith in Christ, which are able to make me wise, unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. It's faith in Christ Jesus because of the Scriptures, because of the Scriptures. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness. It's profitable for all those things, but what is reproof? What is instruction? What is correction? Folks, these are things for saved people. It is not for lost people. Those are things he is writing to Timothy about specifically for saved people, specifically for people within the body of Christ or within a congregation of believers. The Scriptures are there for our correction and they are there for our reproof and they are there for all these things. He's talking about unto righteousness, for instruction and righteousness. God gave the Scriptures that we might know how to be righteous. How would you like it if God saved his soul and then said you're on your own now?

[24:05] Go out and do it the best you can. If you mess up, I'm finished with you. He left a book for us to follow. He left a book for us to read and to study, not that we could get into heaven, but so we could know how to act like his children. He saved us by the blood of Jesus Christ to get us into heaven.

[24:26] This book here, it corrects us and it gives us instruction that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished into all good works. Now, he's specifically talking about a preacher there, yes, yes, and Paul was. Folks, that subs out, that sublets out to everybody. We can all be thoroughly furnished. We can all be furnished with this word and this righteousness that it's talking about, the instruction under righteousness. Folks, that book is for us all and I've told you all a dozen times at least, if not two dozen. Don't take my word for everything that comes out of my mouth. If you hear something come out of my mouth and you don't think it fits, look it up.

[25:12] Look it up or ask me after service, hey, I ain't above y'all asking me questions after service. Ask me, where is that in the Bible? Where is that in Scripture? And I will happily point it out to you, but if something stirs in your mind, says that doesn't quite fit right with what I've been taught or what I've thought all my life, ask me about it and I will gladly show you where it is in the Scripture. I've preached a lot of things, I've preached a lot of Scriptures and I've taught a lot of things and a lot of Scriptures, but folks I don't think once I've ever taught you something that contradicted what the Word of God says and with God's help it'll continue to be that way.

[25:48] Everything I've taught and preached tonight, I can back up with the Word of God. I can back it up with this sacred text and I'm happy to say that because if I get up here and I tell you my own agenda or I tell you my own plan or my own thoughts, it won't be a help to anybody. This book, God's Word, that's what'll be a help. That's what gives instruction, that's what's good for reproof, that's what's good for correction and let it correct you. How many times we open up the Bible and read something and it just digs at us. It digs in like a briar, or like barb wire maybe, maybe it scratches us in four or five different places. We think I really don't like that. Folks, it's not a matter whether you like it or not. That's the Word of God. There's some things in this book here that just wrecked me over the coals when I read it sometimes, but it's there for my own correction. It's there for my own good. I ain't gonna say I don't like reading it because I do.

[26:44] God give me that book to correct me because He loves me because He saved me and because He expects me to act like a god a little bit of sense when I'm out here in this world. He expects me to act like He is. If I am representing the kingdom of God, I need to be worthy of that covenant. I need to be worthy of that vocation as the Bible says. I need, and folks, I can't make myself worthy. Only God can do that and He only does it through Christ Jesus, but I can read this scripture. I can read this scripture. I can read all about Jesus Christ in this scripture and mimic myself after that.

[27:26] And the more I mimic myself after Jesus Christ, the more like Jesus Christ I'm going to be, the more that God gets ahold of me and He molds me through His Word, then the more like Christ I will become, that's what sanctification is. That is God constantly making you more and more like the image of His own Son. That's sanctification and that's the kind of setting apart that I want.

[27:50] That's the kind of sanctification that I need in my life, not tradition and not denomination and not associations and all this other garbage that I hear about. I want to be more like Christ, not like a Baptist or a Pentecostal or a Methodist or anyone else. Make me like Christ God, not like what I've been told. God help us. God help us. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished, and all good works. Now, will I or any other preacher or any of you be perfect while we're here? No, absolutely not. I will not be, but this book gets us set on that pathway. This book is set towards the completion of God's work in us. When will that work be completed when I'm over yonder? And folks, it ain't just when I die that it's completed. It ain't just when I die that that work is done. There's still some things to be done. Even after that, that marriage supper don't take place once Spitzer Baumgartner enters in through the pearly gates. That marriage supper will take place when every one of God's children have gathered at that table. None will be left out. None will be left out of that peace. None will be left out of that supper. We will all be gathered together at that one supper that will be the culmination, pretty much of the entire Bible, of the entire purpose of God's children, will be the marriage supper of the Lamb. It'll be Christ wed to His bride and folks to rest as they say is history.

[29:29] There'll be no more sin. There'll be no more death. There'll be no more heartache. Devil's gonna be in his place in hell and death in hell are gonna have their places in the lake of fire. All these things are gonna take place, but it does not take place the moment that me or you walk in. It takes place in God's timetable in His way, in His manner, and He's not going to change it for me or you or anyone else. But I look forward to that day nonetheless.