2 Timothy 2:1-9

[0:00] If y'all will turn with me in the New Testament to the book of 2 Timothy.! 2 Timothy, Chapter 2.

[0:13] Sorry if things seem a little bit out of sort, but you go to different places and they have different ways of doing things and different orders that they do things in.

[0:29] So, you know, each church has got their own way of doing that. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. It just kind of makes somebody that's filling in look kind of silly sometimes.

[0:46] But that's okay. It's not the first time. It's not the first time I've ever felt silly and won't be the last. Try it. So, the epistle, second epistle, I should say, to Timothy from the Apostle Paul, naturally, Paul is the first epistle.

[1:08] However, the second epistle is unique in that it is the last known letter that Paul ever wrote.

[1:19] He wrote this from prison or dungeon awaiting to be executed by Nero, the emperor of that time.

[1:34] So, it's very unique in that aspect that this is the last known letter that we have. 1 Timothy is a letter of instruction that's given to a young man named Timothy.

[1:47] Some of you Bible readers may know that Timothy is first brought up in the Scripture in Acts, Chapter 16. He's a young man. At this point, he's not such a young man.

[1:58] He's not an old man by any means. But he's got some experience by the time the letters to him have been written by the Apostle Paul.

[2:10] He's got some experience in the ministry. He's got some experience pastoring. He's got some experience preaching. And if he has experience in all those things and he's been preaching it right and straight and true, he's also got some experience with persecution.

[2:25] He's got some experience with people questioning him. We can rightly judge, I should say, by 1 Timothy that because of some of the things that Paul brought up in 1 Timothy that not only did Timothy have experience pastoring and preaching, but he had experience doing so in a world and in a church where heresy had entered in, you know, heresy and Judaizers and people that were perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[3:04] The gospel of Jesus Christ, and I praise God for it every day, is a very simple thing. We're sinners and God is the Savior. The Bible makes it very plain that we're sinners for all of sin and come short of the glory of God.

[3:19] All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone our own ways. But God still in his mercy and God in his patience and God in his love and his goodness and his long suffering and his omniscience, his all-knowingness, made a way in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world was ever laid.

[3:39] It was decided that Christ would come to suffer and bleed and die on behalf of rebel sinners against God.

[3:49] And folks, that's as simply as I can put the gospel. The gospel is simply the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's the good news that because of that, you and I can have life and we can have it more abundantly.

[4:03] We're dead in our trespasses and sin, according to Ephesians chapter 2, that God can raise us to new spiritual life through the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

[4:14] So again, the first letter that we have to Timothy is a letter mostly of instruction. How the church is to be run. How the elders of the church are to not only conduct themselves, but how they're to be put in their positions.

[4:32] And we see several things throughout 1 Timothy to do with that. 2 Timothy begins in chapter 1 with Paul exhorting Timothy. He's telling Timothy, it tickles Paul to death to hear that Timothy has done well.

[4:49] And he encourages Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel in chapter 1. And that's all in a real small condensed nutshell.

[5:00] So that brings us to chapter number 2 in Timothy. We're going to read the first nine verses of 2 Timothy in chapter 2. So beginning with verse 1, Paul writes, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

[5:16] And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

[5:31] No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

[5:42] And if a man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.

[5:56] Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds.

[6:14] But the word of God is not bound. So again, this letter that he's writing here, he is encouraging Timothy. See, Brother Paul knows that his time is short coming up.

[6:28] He knows that his execution draws nigh. And we know that from the latter portion of this letter that he has written to Timothy. So he's giving him words of encouragement in saying this.

[6:42] But back to chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And I understand that 1 and 2 Timothy and the epistle that Paul wrote to Titus and Philemon, as well as a couple of others in the scripture, are considered the pastoral epistles in the scripture.

[7:05] And many people see it that if they're pastoral epistles, then the lay people of the church don't need to pay any attention to it.

[7:15] Well, folks, it is within the 66 books of the canon of scripture that we have. Therefore, it is for all of us to read. It is for all of us to study. It is to exhort all of us into being better Christians and to being what God would have us to be.

[7:34] So these epistles are not just for pastors. They're not just for deacons. They're not just for elders. They're for the entirety of the church. Everyone that believes in God, everyone that believes the word of God needs to study the pastoral epistles just as much as they would the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

[7:56] If God had wanted a separate book, just for pastors, deacons, and elders, He would have had a separate book written. But these are all within the pages of our closed canon of scripture.

[8:07] Verse 1, He says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Notice what he tells Timothy here. He says, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

[8:21] He doesn't encourage Timothy to be strong in his own might or to be strong in his own strength or to be strong in his own intelligence or his intellect or his ambitions or anything else.

[8:34] He encourages Timothy to be strong in the grace that is found in Christ Jesus. And I charge you today, church, that you need to be strong in the exact same way and the exact same thing that Paul is telling Timothy here to be strong and to be strong in the grace that is found in Christ Jesus.

[8:54] Too many times people in the church world were talking about say born again Christians. They put their confidence in man. They put their confidence in princes. They put their confidence in themselves or in their family or in a pastor or in a deacon or whatever the case is.

[9:12] But folks, Paul tells Timothy here, Be strong. Have your strength in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. And what better grace to be strong in than that which is found in Christ Jesus.

[9:24] Christ Jesus being the epitome and the personification of what grace truly is. Folks, Jesus Christ was under no obligation. He chose to come here and die for lost sinners.

[9:36] He chose to do that. He chose to come here. He chose to come here on behalf of you and on behalf of me that you and I could be brought back into right relationship with almighty God who had cursed man in the garden when Adam and Eve felled.

[9:53] He cursed man. He cursed the entire world. And all of us were underneath a curse. And Jesus Christ in mercy and in grace and in obedience to the father came here, suffered and bled and died a cruel death on behalf of sinners that you and I could be brought back into relationship, that we could be reconciled back to God the father, that we could be redeemed into the family of almighty God.

[10:20] And it takes grace to do that. It takes grace to save our souls. And it will take grace as we sing in the old hymn, Amazing Grace. It will take grace to get us home.

[10:30] Hallelujah. And I'm glad that God is the God of all grace. He is the God of all comfort. He is the God of all peace. And he grants grace unto them that have been saved.

[10:41] For it is by grace you have been saved. Not of works. It is a gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast, according to what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus in chapter 2 of Ephesians.

[10:54] It's by grace that we are saved. It's not of my works. And that grace is found in Jesus Christ. And we need to be strong in that grace. We need to be strong in our convictions about that grace.

[11:06] It is not anything that I could do, ever have done, or ever will do. Or that I'm doing right now that I'm saved. It is all because of a merciful God who looked down upon me one day and had mercy and gave grace.

[11:22] And he granted saving faith to my soul. And that is why I am one of his. Be strong in this grace that is in Christ Jesus. And I encourage you today to be strong in that same grace.

[11:33] Verse 2, he says, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

[11:45] And the things that thou hast heard of me. I want you to notice the multiplication here. He has just encouraged Timothy to be strong in the grace that is found in Christ Jesus.

[11:56] And then he says, And the things that thou hast heard of me, that you, Timothy, have heard of me, the things that you've heard of me, the gospel that you have heard me preach, the gospel that I have explained to you, the gospel that you've heard me tell other people about, to be strong in those things, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, that thou, you, Timothy, has heard of me.

[12:21] We begin with one man, Paul. And he goes on to another man, Timothy, as well as many other men. You can read about Paul preaching to people all throughout the book of Acts.

[12:32] You can read about throughout the rest of his letters, the epistles that he wrote to the Romans, the epistles that he wrote, the epistles that he wrote to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to all these other people in the scripture.

[12:45] Paul knows the gospel, and Paul has shared the gospel. But in this one particular verse, he says, the things that thou hast heard of me, the things that you, Timothy, have heard of me, we began with one man, he passed it along to another man.

[12:59] It says, among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men. Folks, our entire, the gist of being a Christian is to pass along what we have and what we know to other people.

[13:13] Is that not the Great Commission? This is the Great Commission in seed form here. What Paul is talking about here. The Great Commission being that Jesus Christ says, at the end of the gospel of Matthew, to go ye forth into all the world and to preach the gospel to every living creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

[13:33] We are to go forth and we are to tell the world of the gospel. Paul here reminds Timothy, you heard these things from me. It goes from Paul to Timothy, and he charges Timothy to the same commit to other faithful men.

[13:48] The same commit to faithful men. Folks, we are to go out here, but that's a multiplication. One man going to faithful men. That's at least two men that he's talking about. And it ends here with who shall be able to teach others.

[14:01] Also, if one man goes to another man, it's multiplied. If another man goes to faithful men and he gives this gospel to them and they go forth unto others.

[14:12] Folks, it's a multiplication of the gospel. It's a multiplication of salvation and it's a multiplication of the kingdom of Almighty God. And you and I are to do our very best.

[14:23] We are to strive as Christians. We are to strive as believers to multiply the kingdom of God. I'm not saying that we go out and we save souls. Only God has power to do that.

[14:34] But we go out and we tell men that you are a sinner, but God is a wonderful, marvelous, merciful, able, and willing Savior. Hallelujah. And He is able and willing to save souls.

[14:48] Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance according to what Peter wrote. We can multiply this thing, folks. And it's our job to do so.

[14:59] And that's not my thoughts on it. That's what the Word is telling us here. It is our job to go out and to be faithful ministers. I'm not talking about pastors or preachers or whatever, but to minister to a world.

[15:15] Folks, the world is looking for something. The lost world is looking for something. I was looking for something when I was lost. If you're here saved, you were looking for something when you were lost.

[15:26] And that something is none other than Jesus Christ. And it is our job to go into the world and inform the people of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Inform them that there is a God that loves their souls so much that He sent His only begotten Son into the world that you and I could be saved.

[15:44] And it's for lost people. But folks, the gospel is not only for lost. I need the gospel just as much now as a born-again child of God as I needed it then before I was saved.

[15:55] I need to be reminded of the gospel. I want to be reminded of the gospel. This keeps me humble. And this keeps me in a right spirit to know that my salvation is not of me, but it is completely, totally, and utterly of God.

[16:09] And it is our job to go into the world and say, I know you're looking for something. I know that you're looking at the bottom of a bottle. I know you're looking in a pill bottle. I know you're looking in the drugs, in the alcohol, in the men and the women.

[16:22] You're looking everywhere for something to fulfill that hole in your heart. But there is only one thing that will ever fill it. And that is a salvation that is granted by Almighty God to everyone who repents of their sin and believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[16:37] It is our job to tell the world to do that. And when we do that, we are multiplying the gospel. And we are multiplying the kingdom of God. The inhabitants of the kingdom of God.

[16:48] Verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Therefore endure hardness. He's giving Timothy warning here.

[16:59] There's going to be hardness. It says, They that live godly in Christ, Jesus shall suffer persecution. If we are truly living as godly people, if we are truly living like we believe the truth that we are proclaiming to the world, the world is going to hate our guts.

[17:19] The world will not be able to stand us. Why? Because the world cannot stand God. The world cannot stand the gospel. The world cannot stand the truth of Almighty God.

[17:30] And he says, To endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Using a metaphor here of a soldier. He goes on in verse 4, No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

[17:48] So in verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.

[18:00] My question to you would be, what are you entangling yourself with? And is that hindering you being a good soldier of Jesus Christ? The exhortation that's being given to Timothy here from Brother Paul is that we need to endure hardness.

[18:17] The hardness of the world. Remember folks, where Paul was when he wrote this letter. He was in prison awaiting to be executed knowing he was going to die.

[18:29] And what was he doing? He was enduring. He was enduring unto the end. You read toward the latter part of this letter to Timothy that Paul, he fought a good fight.

[18:40] He kept the faith. He'd done everything that he was supposed to do. And he knew that there was laid up a crown of righteousness for him at the end of this thing. And he endured because of that.

[18:53] Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.

[19:06] What are we entangling ourselves with? Are we entangling ourselves with entertainment? Are we entangling ourselves with worldly pleasures? Are we entangling ourselves with anything that is getting in the way of our relationship and our charge from God, our mission from God to go out and proclaim the gospel and to multiply the kingdom of Almighty God?

[19:30] Folks, I'm not saying that entertainment is sinful. I'm not saying that at all. If you like to watch football, God bless you. Go watch football. If you like to watch baseball, God bless you.

[19:41] Go watch baseball. But do not get so entangled up with these things or any other thing in the middle of your war. Folks, the Christian life is a war.

[19:55] It is not a playground. It is not a cakewalk. It's not a nap. It is a war. We are at war with Satan.

[20:06] We are at war with demons. We are at war with spiritual darkness. We are at war with principalities and the powers of the air. We are at war with all of these things.

[20:19] It is not a walk in the park. It is war. And we are soldiers for Jesus Christ. And soldiers do not entangle themselves with the affairs of this life, with the affairs of our natural lives while they are warring.

[20:35] Now again, I'm not saying anything that I just used as an example is sinful, but don't get so caught up in it that it messes with your fight.

[20:46] That it gets in the way of what we are supposed to be fighting. Because that is when we end up in trouble as Christians. Verse 5, And if a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strived lawfully.

[21:02] So, Paul moves from a metaphor of a soldier here to a metaphor of an athlete. He says, If a man also strived for masteries, that's the way he's talking about it, someone that's going to be participating in a game.

[21:16] And folks, let me tell you, I just brought up football and baseball. I can bring up basketball and any number of other sports as examples. What are all those people that play those sports referred to as?

[21:28] They're referred to as athletes. And here, Paul is using this as a metaphor. So again, it's not sinful to enjoy those things. It's not sinful to participate in those things.

[21:39] What's sinful is when we allow those things to take a throne above God in our lives. Or we allow those things to get in the way of the fact that we are to be committed to for God's sake.

[21:54] And if a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strived lawfully. What's he saying here? If he's striving for masteries, what does an athlete do? Folks, I'll tell you right now, let's say a track runner.

[22:07] He doesn't just show up to a meet and start running. He's going to tire out. He will give out before the other people who have trained themselves, who have disciplined themselves, who have eaten right, they have done right, they have done everything that they're supposed to be doing.

[22:26] They're going to last longer in that race than the one who just shows up to run without any of that training and without any of that discipline. How do we train ourselves? You keep your nose in this book.

[22:38] That's how you train yourself. You keep your nose in the book and you keep your, you keep a mind constantly in prayer to Jesus Christ. You keep a, you keep an attitude of prayer constantly.

[22:49] That's why Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica. He said, pray without ceasing. That doesn't mean I go around the rest of my days and anywhere I want to walk to, I go on my knees instead. But we keep an attitude of prayer constantly.

[23:02] We are in constant communication with Almighty God. And a true child of God will want that. They will want constant communication with the Father. You remember what it was like when you was a kid and you lost contact with your parents, didn't know where Mom was, didn't know where Dad was, even if it was just for 10 seconds.

[23:21] You remember the butterflies they might give you when you were caught in that circumstance? I do. Folks, we should have the same butterflies if we feel like we're out of contact with Almighty God. We should be in constant communication with Him.

[23:34] If a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned, yet is he not victorious, in other words, except he strived lawfully. Folks, there's some rules we've got to follow.

[23:45] That's what it means when it says except he strived lawfully. Somebody shows up to run a track course, somebody shows up to play a game of any kind, if they break the rules, they're disqualified.

[23:59] They're out. There is no crown for them, in other words. They will not be victorious, in other words. So, Paul here says, if a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned, yet is he not crowned, except he strived lawfully.

[24:16] What are the rules that we have to follow? Again, keep your nose in the book, and you will know the rules that we are to go by. You will know what we're to do. Folks, the thing about Christianity, and the thing about what we were talking about earlier in verse 2, about the multiplication of God's kingdom, and how it went from Paul to Timothy to faithful men and to others after that.

[24:40] Folks, this here, where he says he will not be crowned, except he strived lawfully, there are rules that we must follow.

[24:50] And if we break those rules, if we go against the word of God, it's going to be all for naught. Any kind of effort that we're making, anything that we are doing for the kingdom of God, it's going to be all for naught.

[25:04] It'll be worthless to the kingdom of God. It'll be worthless in our personal walk with Almighty God if we go against God's rules. And all those rules are found here in His Scripture.

[25:15] Now, you and I, we cannot follow the law completely and totally. We couldn't do it when we are lost and we can't do it while we're saved. If any man could follow the law perfectly, there would have been no reason for Christ to have come.

[25:29] But we couldn't. Even Jesus Christ said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. Folks, Jesus Christ came to walk the path that you could not walk. He came to do the thing that you could not do.

[25:41] He came to obey the Father, dotting every I and crossing every T, every job and every tittle of the law was followed and it was finished to completion by Almighty God through Jesus Christ.

[25:57] You and I couldn't do that. And we can't now. But we strive to. And if we are truly born again, we're going to strive to do this and we're going to strive lawfully as the Scripture here tells us to.

[26:12] Verse 6, the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. So we've gone from a use of a soldier as an example to the use of an athlete as an example.

[26:27] And here he says the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. And folks, if we are out here proclaiming a truth to the world and we are not living that truth, what does that do to the church?

[26:41] And I'm not talking about Valley View Missionary Baptist. I'm talking about the church as a whole. If we are out here living one way, but preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, living opposite to that Gospel, living opposite to that truth, what does that do to the reputation of the church?

[27:00] It drags it through the dirt. It drags it through the mud. We are not to do that. Here he says, the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruit.

[27:12] I had to receive grace before I could strengthen myself in the grace that is in Jesus Christ, as verse 1 says. I had to receive it. Otherwise, I didn't have any understanding of it.

[27:24] I had to receive salvation before I could go preaching salvation to anyone else. I had to be first a partaker of that fruit before I could go forth into the world and proclaim that fruit to anyone else or proclaim that truth to anyone else.

[27:41] And you are in no different shape than what I am. We must have some experience with something before we can go telling people about it. Don't come to me asking me how to do brain surgery.

[27:55] I have no idea how to do it. There's some things though I couldn't tell you about because I've got experience with those things. If someone comes to me though and says, I have no idea how to be saved, praise God, I can tell them.

[28:09] I can tell them. I can tell them from the scriptures how to be saved. I can tell them that Joel said in Joel chapter 2 that there was coming a day that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.

[28:23] And I can tell them that Brother Paul reiterated that in Romans chapter 10. He said that if a man confess Jesus Christ as Lord and he believeth in his heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

[28:36] I can tell them that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. And I can show them through the scriptures how they are lost. But folks, we don't leave it there. We don't leave them in a lost state.

[28:48] We tell them how to come out from underneath that condemnation. Praise God for Romans 8 and 1 that says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus.

[28:59] There's no condemnation to be found in me. If you're saved, there's no condemnation to be found in you because our condemnation was put upon Jesus Christ on a hill called Calvary when he suffered on behalf of our sins and on behalf of us.

[29:13] And I thank God for that. We have to partake. We have to be first partakers before we can distribute what God has given us. This is what verse 6 there is saying.

[29:26] The husband that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. The farmer goes out. He rises early in the morning. He sows in faith that the seed that he has sown is going to grow up into something out of the ground whether it be corn, whether it be beans, whether it be tomatoes, whatever the case is.

[29:44] He rises early, he sows in faith and he patiently waits. One of the greatest things I ever read in Scripture, me personally, was not long after I started preaching, I couldn't understand why the altars wasn't flooded with people praying and people repenting.

[30:02] I couldn't understand why nobody was getting saved. I didn't get that. Then I read in Romans chapter 1, Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

[30:18] It had nothing to do with me. It had nothing to do with me. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. What is my job to do as this farmer or this husbandman here that Paul is talking about?

[30:33] He says, The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruit. I rise up, I go and I sow, and I wait patiently just like any good farmer will do, knowing that it is out of their hands what happens.

[30:48] It is up to Almighty God. And it's up to the Holy Spirit of God. When the Holy Spirit, when He lays conviction on the heart that has heard the gospel, that is that person's opportunity.

[31:00] That is that individual's opportunity to repent of their sin and to receive salvation. To repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But folks, we have to be partakers in it first before we can go spreading it around.

[31:15] Now, that's not to say that a lost person can't run around town and say, you know, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what Christ, that's what Christ said in Mark chapter 1.

[31:26] He said, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. A lost person can go around town saying that, but folks, what lost person is going to do that?

[31:38] What lost person that doesn't care about the Scripture, doesn't care about salvation, who is going to do that? It is up to us as the church to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[31:50] Verse 7, Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Consider what I say, Timothy. He says, I know that these words are waiting.

[32:03] I know that they've got some depth to them. I know I've told you to endure hardness like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And folks, let's be honest with ourselves. None of us want to go through any kind of hardness.

[32:15] None of us want to go through any type of hardship. We don't want health problems. We don't want financial problems. We don't want relational problems. We don't want spiritual problems. We want none of it.

[32:27] But folks, it will be. If it hasn't happened in your life yet and you're a Christian, it will come. Hardship will come. He says, Consider what I say.

[32:40] Meditate on it. Pray about it. Folks, consider what God says. Meditate on the Scriptures. Pray over the Scriptures. Ask God for guidance in the Scriptures.

[32:53] I wish I could tell you what everything in this Bible meant, but I can't. I can't. And no man can. But I can tell you how to be saved.

[33:05] And I can tell other people how to be saved. And I can tell you how I was saved. And it wasn't because of me. It wasn't because I was a good boy and I deserved it. It was because God is gracious. Consider what I say.

[33:16] Consider what God says throughout His Scripture. The book of Haggai. The proclamation goes out twice. Consider thy ways. And that's God talking to His own people.

[33:28] That's God talking to the Jews. It says, Consider thy ways. What were their ways? They had begun a work, but they hadn't finished it. They had begun building the temple, but then they left it in ruins.

[33:40] And they instead went to their own houses and made improvements there. It wasn't that they lived in sealed houses as the Scripture puts it in Haggai's prophetical book.

[33:54] It wasn't the fact that they lived in sealed houses. It wasn't the fact that they had things. It was the fact that they had neglected the things of God. And that's why God told them consider thy ways. And folks, I encourage you now to consider your ways.

[34:06] Consider what I say is what Paul writes to Timothy. And the Lord give thee understanding in all things. If you consider your ways and you are truly seeking after God and you are truly seeking after the will of God in your life and you are meditating on the Scriptures and you are staying in constant prayer unto God, God will eventually give you understanding.

[34:27] And I praise God for that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy understanding according to what we read in Proverbs. Fear the Lord.

[34:38] Fear the Lord. You want wisdom? Fear God. James chapter 1 says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God that giveth unto men literally and upbraveth not.

[34:50] You want wisdom? Ask God for it. You want guidance? Ask God for it. You want any of these things? You want anything of God? You must go to God for it.

[35:01] Because the world can't give it to you and the world wouldn't even if they could. Verse number 8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Scripture.

[35:13] Consider what Paul has written up to this point. Consider what he has told Timothy beginning at verse 1. He says to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

[35:25] He goes on to talk about the hardness. To endure that hardness. He gives the examples of the athlete. He gives the example of the soldier.

[35:36] He gives the example of a farmer or a husbandman. He says, Consider what I say in verse 7. And the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

[35:46] But then he says, Remember. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Gospel. And folks, if the Gospel that we have is not the same Gospel that Paul had, we don't have a Gospel at all.

[36:05] If it is not the same Gospel that Paul preached, if it's not the same Gospel that Jesus Christ Himself preached, if it's not the same Gospel that Peter preached, the same Gospel that John preached, the same Gospel that all of the disciples, minus Judas Iscariot, of course, preached.

[36:25] If it's not that Gospel, we have not a Gospel. But he says, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Scripture. Why does he throw this in here at this point?

[36:36] Because folks, that is why. That is why when we see ourselves as a soldier as was given as the first metaphor up here, what do soldiers do? Soldiers sweat. Soldiers bleed.

[36:48] Soldiers endure. And sometimes soldiers die in the battle. But he says, Remember. Remember that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. Folks, we don't do this to get a backpack from the world.

[37:02] We don't train ourselves and discipline ourselves as the athlete here that he talked about a few verses before this. To get a backpack from the world or to get the praise of men.

[37:14] We don't go out like the farmer and sow and wait patiently. To get the praise of men. Why do we do it? We do it because the tomb is empty.

[37:25] We do it because Jesus Christ is alive and because he is alive and he is ascended to the Father and he forever makes intercession on behalf of everyone that has repented of their sin and believed in his gospel.

[37:38] This is why we do these things. And that's the only reason. If we do it for any reason outside of that, folks, we're doing it for ourselves. We're doing it for ourselves.

[37:50] He exhorts Timothy here and encourages Timothy, no matter what you go through, no matter what hardships you have to endure, no matter how much persecution comes your way, no matter how much people slander you, no matter how badly people talk about you, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David, Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ that was first promised in Genesis 3 and verse 15 as the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent.

[38:27] Jesus Christ is alive. The tomb is empty and He is the reason that we do the things that we do. He is the reason that we endure. He is the reason that we go forth in our battle, in our wars, that He has assigned us to.

[38:45] Going back to the metaphor of a soldier. Folks, God doesn't call us to win every battle. Obviously, He doesn't. He's already won it.

[38:57] Has He not? He has won it. Jesus Christ has won it. He defeated sin, death, hell, and the grave. What do we have to fight against?

[39:08] What do we have to fight against? The evil of this world. The evil of this world. But we can only do that through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've said many times, as much as I despise abortion, and I do, abortion is the murder of a human being.

[39:25] It is the taking of an innocent life. And there is no excuse for it. Bar it on. There is no excuse. But as much as I hate that, what good would it do for me to fight sin with more sin?

[39:39] What good would it do for me to go and set fire to the abortion clinics? What good would it do me to go and kill abortion doctors?

[39:50] That is fighting sin with sin, folks. And we cannot do that. We cannot do that. The only way to truly fight sin is with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[40:00] That is the only answer to sin. Men have tried for decades, for millennia. Men have tried for centuries. Another way. But it is only through faith in God and what He has said that we can fight sin and that we can be saved.

[40:17] Even in the Old Testament, folks, it was all about faith. The Bible says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. It wasn't the fact that Abraham went to the promised land not even knowing where he was going.

[40:30] It's not the fact that he took Isaac up on the mountaintop to sacrifice him because he was commanded to. That's not it. It says Abraham believed God.

[40:40] He believed the words that God spoke. And God speaks through His Word now. God speaks through His Word. God speaks through His Spirit. And He bids all men come. He bids all men come and repent and believe in my Son, Jesus Christ.

[40:57] Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Gospel. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound.

[41:13] So He says, remember this. Remember the Gospel, Timothy. He says, Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer. Paul is not here saying I'm an evildoer and therefore I'm suffering trouble.

[41:25] He's saying I'm suffering trouble just like an evildoer would. Folks, that's the same thing that Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ suffered the death of the crucifixion like the common thief would.

[41:39] Like a common criminal or a malefactor as the Scripture calls them. He suffered as a criminal yet He had no sin. The Bible says no guile was ever found in His mouth.

[41:52] He never sinned in thought, word, or deed. Imagine that going through life. Never having an improper thought about anyone. And people will say, well, He sure gave the Pharisees down the road.

[42:04] Folks, that was righteous judgment. That was righteous indignation that He had for the Pharisees. There was nothing sinful in what He called them. There's nothing sinful in what He said to them or about them.

[42:17] The man never knew sin. The Bible says He that knew no sin became sin for us. The Bible also says cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree.

[42:29] He was cursed for your sake. He was cursed for my sake. What does the Bible say in Romans chapter 6? For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[42:44] The wages of sin is death, and Christ suffered death for us. Now, we'll all go the way of all the earth according to the book of Ecclesiastes.

[42:55] We're all going to die. Yes. But there's a second death that we read about in the book of Revelation. And that death will last forever and forever and forever and you will die eternally if you don't know Jesus Christ, if you have not repented of your sin believing the gospel.

[43:13] Paul here says, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. Paul recognizing, I'm in prison. I'm in a dungeon.

[43:24] And I'm awaiting death. I'm suffering this trouble even unto bonds. I've been changed here. But he says, but the Word of God is not bound. And folks, that should encourage us more than anything else in these nine verses we've gone through here.

[43:40] No matter what situation you find yourself in or I find myself in. Folks, they will shut the preachers up in prison. They will try to outlaw the truth.

[43:50] They will try and stop the gospel. But you cannot kill the truth of God. And you cannot kill the gospel of Jesus Christ. It cannot be stopped. People have tried to stop it ever since it was first preached.

[44:03] And they've been trying to stop it ever since. It is impossible. What God has set in motion will last for all of eternity. And when we are up there one day, those of us that have been born again, when we are up gathered around the throne of Almighty God singing praise unto Him, it will be because of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you and I are even there than alone praising Almighty God.

[44:27] He says, He suffered even unto bonds. But the word of God is not bound. And folks, that is just as true now 2,000 years later after Paul wrote this as it was then.

[44:40] The word of God is still not bound. One of these days, one of these days, I'm going to go on. I'm going to die. I will not be here anymore. But the gospel will go forth.

[44:51] And all this being said, I don't know if we've got any preachers present or not outside of myself. All that being said, if you have a ministry that doesn't go forward after you're dead and gone, that's not even a true ministry.

[45:09] It must go forward. It must go on. If it doesn't, it's because it wasn't gospel-centered. It's because it wasn't focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[45:20] Chances are, it was focused upon yourself if it doesn't continue. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God, is not bound. It has never been bound. Nor will it be bound.

[45:31] You think of the prophets in the Old Testament. They come giving warning. They come telling people to repent. The people scoffed at them. They mocked them. Killed some of them.

[45:42] But folks, that didn't stop God's judgment. And it did not stop what the prophets were saying from coming to pass. You cannot kill the word of God. You cannot kill God.

[45:52] You cannot take Him out of the picture. He is maker and master of this entire universe. The word of God is not bound. Let that be an encouragement to you. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention.

[46:03] God bless you all.