Approved and Unashamed - 2 Timothy 2: 14-19

4:03In fact, he says in 1 Corinthians 15, which I know you spent time on last week, he says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if the resurrection from the dead is not real, then our faith is useless. The entire Christian faith is useless. Because if resurrection isn't real, then Christ never was raised from the dead. And if he wasn't raised from the dead, then there's no point in our faith. Resurrection is essential to the gospel. It's of first importance. It's essential to our salvation. It's essential to the Christian faith. Jesus Christ gives life.

4:49Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He gives life, and he gives real life. And life surrounds all that he does. If you remember, even in the moment of his death, God gave life. In Matthew's account of the crucifixion, he says, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

5:39This is what God does. This is what Christ does. He gives life. God is the one who can cause dry bones to live. Christ is the author of life. And we, as believers, we are eagerly awaiting for his appearance. We are inwardly groaning, groaning inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies when the perishable puts on imperishable, when the mortal puts on immortality, so that we can finally, and I know you remember this passage, so that we can finally, after death, mock death and look back and say, Where is your sting?

6:25And so, given the fact that the resurrection, Christ's resurrection and our resurrection, given the fact that this is such a key, essential, core doctrine, then it's no surprise that from the very earliest days of the church, this is a doctrine that was attacked right away. And it's no surprise that from the very earliest days of the church, right away, the apostles vigorously defended this doctrine. This is important. To declare that the resurrection is not a bodily resurrection, to declare that the resurrection is never going to happen, to declare that the final resurrection has already happened, all of those are faith-destroying heresies that we see in the scriptures, that we see argued against in the scriptures.

7:24Timothy is going to have to stand against these heresies. He's a worker, he's God's worker. How he's described in this text. He's a servant of the highest master. And so, in our text today, Paul is going to give him three commands. Three commands for God's worker. Repeat the truth. Remember your master and refuse to swerve. Repeat the truth. Remember your master and refuse to swerve. So follow along as I read our text. This is 2 Timothy 2, verses 14 through 19. It's a little bit long, but 2 Timothy 2, verse 14 through 19. Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

8:27But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from it. Iniquity. I'll pray and then we can jump in. Father, we pray that you would give us a strong desire to be like Paul, to be like Timothy, to stand and guard the deposit of the truth that has been handed to the church.

9:27Help us be men and women that love the truth, that are committed to the truth of your word. Help us be men and women that love your word, that are continually growing in knowledge of your word as we speak the truth in love to one another. Help us be accurate. Help us be careful. Help us be diligent. Help the congregation here today be a congregation that doesn't have itching ears or that drives a church into error.

10:18But instead, help this congregation always continue to be one that loves your word and loves the truth, that won't stand for error. We're grateful to be together. We pray that you'd help us as we study. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the first command to God's worker is: repeat the truth. Repeat the truth. And this is a kind of command that he's been giving throughout the entire pastoral epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus. Look at verse 14. He says, Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. So Paul has just talked about how those who have died with Christ, those who are enduring, they will get to live with Christ and even reign with Christ. Those who deny Christ, he will deny. But even if they are faithless, Christ remains faithful to his own. He will hold us fast. And so Paul has just said these things, and then he says, remind them of these things.

11:36This is a trustworthy saying, is how he describes the last passage. And so now he's saying, remind them of these things. Repeat the truth. They've heard this before. Now repeat it to them again. Remind them of these things. They need to remember because, and we can testify to this as believers, because we We often get distracted by so many other goals and ends, even duties in our life. We can get distracted by other things, even if they're good. So, look at what he says: remind them of these things, charging them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. So, Paul is saying that there's a kind of debate that might even masquerade as being useful and profitable.

12:35A kind of debate that he's calling quarrels. And he's saying this is not vital and helpful. This is not good and profitable. It's the opposite. And so, part of what Timothy is to remind them, as he's reminding them of the truth, is to stay away from those quarrels, stay away from those controversies. This is something he said over and over in 1 and 2 Timothy. And now he's saying it in the presence of God. This is a charge in the presence of God. He's saying, charge them before God not to quarrel about words. This is serious.

13:13Why? Look at what he says. Because it does no good, but only ruins the hearers. So it may be that these people that are debating, that are arguing, they might think that they're doing good. They might think that they're doing a good thing and blessing the church. More likely, this is in the camp of the false teachers that could care less about what happens to the church. That they're debating because they want the attention, they want the show, they want people to think of how great a debater and an arguer they are, and they're not caring about the collateral damage. But whatever the case, Paul is saying that men like that, they are tearing down the church. They are ruining the church. The word he uses is the opposite of edifying. It's the opposite of building up. They're ruining. They're tearing down people because of the way they argue and quarrel and debate.

14:12So the question for us is: how do we think about this? You know, is it wrong to correct somebody if they're teaching something false? And we say, you can't teach that. That's false. Is that quarreling with them? How do we avoid arguing? How do we avoid quarreling? Well, we know it can't be that we're just not supposed to speak the truth because he said that over and over and over and over in these letters, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. He said over and over and over that we are supposed to correct. We are supposed to correct the false teachers.

14:55And yet, we're not supposed to quarrel. I've heard it said that there are some fights that you lose just by joining. And Paul is saying to Timothy and to the church through Timothy, he's saying, don't join in those quarrels. You need to know how to have wisdom and stay away from them. Avoid those arguments. Well, in the pastoral epistles, he walks this line over and over and over. Listen to 1 Timothy 2:8. He says, Men are to pray in the church, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. In 1 Timothy 3, he says, elders are to be not quarrelsome. In 1 Timothy 6, he says, false teachers have an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words. In 2 Timothy 2, at the end of the chapter, he says, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone.

15:58Christians are to avoid quarreling in Titus and avoid foolish quarrels about the law. So there's so much. And yet, there's no other letters in all of Scripture that talk the most about defending the truth and guarding the deposit and standing up for the truth. So how do we balance that? How do we not quarrel and yet still defend the truth? Well, that's the topic of the sermon this afternoon at Redeemer Baptist Church, which meets at 2.30 over there. Okay, that's the rest of the chapter in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

16:35So you can come in and hear, but it centers around gentleness. That's what he says, to give away the answer. It centers around gentleness. Yes, you do correct, but you correct with gentleness because the other person might even repent when they see your kindness and the way that you correct with gentleness. So he says here, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. The second command for God's worker is to remember your master. Remember your master. Look at verse 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. A worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Do you remember this verse? Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. My favorite TV show right now, the TV show that we just love to watch, is maybe this is cheesy, but it's called a repair shop. Has any of you ever seen a repair shop?

17:43It's this group of tradesmen that can do like anything. There's a wood worker, there's a leather worker, there's people who can sew, there's a metal worker, you know, they can do anything, and they can fix anything. And so people bring these antiques to them, and they work hard. On them, and you get to see them working on all the projects. And then at the end, it's just perfect every time. They can do the most amazing things and just make it look all original and perfect and blend all the paint colors. And it's just really neat. But at the end of every repair, there comes a time where they have to show it to the person who actually owns the item, right? Judgment Day for these tradesmen. And, you know, at the end of every episode, they've got it under a blanket, and it's very dramatic, and they'll, you know, take the blanket off. And just to spoiler alert, you know, almost every single time the person cries because, you know, it's so wonderful. And it's a wonderful show. But these people, they do meticulous and careful and beautiful work. They've got no need to be ashamed. You know, they take the blanket off and they've got a huge smile on. They're so excited to show their work because they know how well they've done. Well, Paul says to Timothy, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Paul is saying, there is someone who evaluates our work.

19:17There's someone who evaluates our work. So I want to start at the end of this verse and work backwards because at the end, he tells us exactly what he means. He says, rightly handling the word of truth. The word of truth is God's word, and it needs to be rightly handled. We need to pay attention to how we use it and how we speak about it and how it's taught in the church. Timothy can be a slouch. You know, he can be lazy in the way he prepares to teach. He can give an answer before he's ready to give an answer. He can be sloppy in his exegesis. He can mix it with error. All of these things are very easy for a teacher to do. And Paul is saying to Timothy, don't do it. You work hard. You be diligent so that you know that you are rightly handling the word of truth.

20:16Many of you, myself included, heard this originally or memorized this originally as rightly dividing the word or rightly cutting the word. And that was based on some parallels that it has with the Greek translation of the Psalms. But I think when we hear the word rightly handling the truth, I think we picture the right thing that he's saying. Rightly handling the truth. You're doing well. You're like a good craftsman who knows how to use the tools. You're being careful and meticulous. You're rightly handling the truth. And so if Timothy does this, if we're working backwards, he says, Timothy will be a worker who has no need to be ashamed.

21:01So, rather than experiencing the shame that comes from doing a bad job, the shame that comes from cutting corners with something so precious, the shame that comes from taking shortcuts and not giving a wise, knowledgeable answer, instead, Timothy should want to be a worker that is joyful and confident, excited to give an answer, because he knows he's handled the Word of God well. Not because he's arrogant, not because he thinks he's the only one in the world that can have a right interpretation, but because he's worked hard to become skillful, and he's worked hard to interpret well.

21:45Working backwards again, if Timothy does this, he's working to present yourself to God as one approved. To present yourself to God as one approved. You know, in that show, they present themselves to the owner of that item. But the fearful reality behind handling the Word of God is that it's the Word of God, that there is a person behind the Word of God, that He gave it, and He means for it to be understood. He means for us to do well. The Word means something, He's communicating something.

22:30The teacher of God's Word should work hard to make sure that that's what he is communicating as well. So, Timothy needs to work in front of God's eyes. He needs to present his teaching to the Lord, present himself to God as one approved, doing the best he can. That's what he says at the beginning. Do your best. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. Work at this as hard as you can. Do your best work.

23:03This is the call for anyone who wants to teach the word of God. Anyone in this room who wants to teach the word of God. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. That's James 3:1. Teachers and preachers are meant to be meticulous and careful in the way that they study and do well, handling God's Word. They're to be careful, like the woodworker and the leather worker, who is going to restore an item, and they're not going to add all their own junk to that item.

23:44In the same way, a teacher and preacher, his job is not to add his own junk to the Word of God and give life lessons or stories or morals. The job of a teacher and a preacher is to make it plain, to explain the Word of God. And to handle it rightly. And since all of us, all of us are to be men and women in the church that are speaking the truth in love to one another, building up the body, as we help each other grow in knowledge, as we counsel one another, all of us should learn how to rightly handle the word of God.

24:27Many of us can remember times when a younger believer or just someone younger in our life came and asked us for advice. And it's been a few years now, and we realize we gave them terrible advice. It was based on some misinterpretation of Scripture. It was based off of our own wisdom. We didn't even look at the Word of God. Instead, we should be people who seek to teach according to the Scriptures, counsel one another, speak the truth in love to one another. Because we have a Master. There's someone who sees our work, and it's His Word. And He evaluates our work. And we want to please Him with joy. Not out of fear, but with joy. So repeat the truth. Remember your Master. And the third command is to refuse to swerve. Refuse to swerve. Look at verse 16. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. So he's already told them to avoid quarreling. Now he tells them to avoid irreverent babble. This is another theme we see in the pastoral epistles, that there's a kind of argument and babble and speculations and myth that we just don't even need to associate ourselves with.

25:47At the end of 1 Timothy, he says, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you. That's how he ends the letter of 1 Timothy. So there are secret things that haven't been revealed in the scriptures, and then there are things that have been revealed. And as people who love God's word, we should focus on the things that have been revealed. We don't need to spend all our time speculating on things that are maybe kind of loosely connected to the scriptures, but aren't the scriptures. You know, we can loosely, or we can focus on narratives and legends and things that are only tangentially connected to the scriptures. And I think that's what these people are doing. Myths and speculations and endless debate and babble and controversies. But God has revealed what he wants us to know. And so rather than spending all of our time on that, we spend our time on handling accurately what he has revealed in his word.

27:02The other kind of talk, irreverent babble. It leads people into more and more ungodliness, spreading like gangrene. So the truth, when that spreads, it leads to godliness. This other kind of talk, when it spreads, it leads to more and more ungodliness. It spreads like gangrene. It spreads like rotting of your skin, you know, covering your whole body, this uncontrollable spread. So Timothy is supposed to avoid it. Timothy is not supposed to go to these false teachers and reach out to them by participating in this godless chatter, this irreverent babble. Instead, Timothy can stick to the scriptures and he can preach it in season and out of season, as we'll hear later in the letter. Paul gives a real-life example in verse 17. Look down at verse 17. He says, And their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

28:20So we hear Hymenaeus' name in 1 Timothy. We hear that he has already made shipwreck of his faith. Philetus here is a new name, but both of these men. Are men who have swerved from the truth. They didn't avoid irreverent babble. Instead, they indulged in it. And now they teach it. They like irreverent babble. And so Paul says they have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. Saying that the resurrection has already happened. What can he be talking about? You know, he must be talking about our resurrection, right? The resurrection of Christ has already happened. But he's saying that these people have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. So either they are lying to churches, just like if you remember the Thessalonians were lied to about the day of the Lord, they were told that it had already come. And so maybe it's something like that, that he's saying there was a bodily resurrection and y'all missed it. So you better hope Jesus comes back while you're still alive. Otherwise, you're toast. So it could be something like that. Most commentators think it's maybe even something like twisting Paul's words. You know, Paul speaks about how we have been raised with Christ, which is true. We were buried with Christ. We were raised again to new life. And so maybe these false teachers are saying that's all you're going to get. You were raised with Christ, and that's all that's ever going to happen. It was a spiritual resurrection, and it's already happened. But either way, whatever these false teachers are teaching, they're denying a future resurrection. For believers, they're saying it's already happened. They're denying that the believer is going to be raised from the dead. They're denying that the believer is going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. And so, as you can imagine, at the end of verse 18, he says, They are upsetting the faith of some, they're overturning and churning up and upsetting the faith of people in the church. They're causing doubts.

30:32It was in this hope we were saved as believers, that we will be raised to be with Christ in new bodies, perfected bodies. And so, this is causing doubts. These people are deceiving, and this is what irreverent babble does: it causes doubts, it overturns, it upsets faith because it perverts and twists the truth. But even though these liars might say otherwise, look at verse 19. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

31:23So, even though these false teachers are upsetting and overturning the faith of some, There's a foundation that is firm that can never be changed. You can't upset and overturn it. God's firm foundation still stands. And most commentators believe that this points to the church, that he's saying there are false teachers who have come into the church and they're causing doubts, but they're not going to be able to affect the real church because God has made promises to those who have believed. And that's true. But to me, it sounds more like he's talking about the truth itself again. That's this firm foundation that can't be changed. That these false teachers have come in. But there is a firm foundation that will not be changed no matter what they teach. And that's God's Word. And so we still focus on it and handle it rightly. We stick to the scriptures instead of irreverent babble.

32:23And it's the truth that the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. So though there are those who will refuse to rightly handle God's word, the word of God still stands forever. And though the faith of some might be upset by false teachers, he's saying the Lord still knows those who are his. He knows his sheep. You can't mess with that. You can't overturn it.

32:57God won't forget. And so, since we're going to be able to do that, We name the name of the Lord, we should depart from iniquity. Neither of these quotes are direct quotes of an Old Testament passage, but there's certainly truths that are found in the Old Testament. These are summary truths. The first one is similar to when Moses is challenged by Korah. Do you remember that story? His authority is challenged. He says, you know, essentially, aren't we all on equal footing? And Moses says to him, You just wait till tomorrow. God's going to show you that he knows who is his.

33:38Another similar verse is in Nahum, as God is speaking to the Ninevites, speaking a word of judgment to them. He says in Nahum 1:7, that he knows those who take refuge in him. The second statement that he gives is similar to a few Old Testament passages, especially in the Psalms. But neither of these are quotes, but they summarize so much, right? The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. And Paul is saying, like a permanent seal, maybe like a seal that's stamped into the foundation itself, etched into the foundation. This is a permanent seal.

34:25And so the church can trust that always God knows those who are his. Always, those who name the name of the Lord should depart from iniquity. These are truths that are unchanging. The false teachers are teaching the opposite. They are teaching iniquity, and they're leading to more ungodliness. They're showing that they're not His. And so, Paul is saying again to Timothy: refuse to swerve. Don't get into that babble. Stick to the word. Preach the truth. God knows who are his.

35:09There's a lot of application for us in these last verses, right? First, each of us in this room has the option to either indulge in this kind of irreverent speculation and babble and chatter, to stay on the fringes of the scripture and the podcasts we listen to and the YouTube videos we watch and the things we talk to people about, and then never actually read the word and seek to get to the bottom of what it says in a text.

35:40We can indulge in all those things over and over and over, or we can avoid it and seek to handle the scriptures rightly. Second, each of us can trust that the Lord knows those who are his. We don't need to worry that the Lord's going to forget about us as believers if we'd. Believed in him and come to Christ and asked for forgiveness of sins, we don't need to panic and think that he's forgotten about us. He knows those who are his. He's guarding the church. He's not going to let the church be destroyed. He's not going to let us as individuals be lost. The Lord knows those who are his.

36:23Third, we name the name of the Lord. We profess to know Jesus Christ. We profess to be his people. We profess to worship him and love him. And so if we name the name of the Lord, this one's obvious, right? If we name the name of the Lord, then we should depart from iniquity. We are his, and he has no iniquity. And so we should be people who are seeking to depart from iniquity, just like the apostle says. Fourth, we can continue in our confidence that there will be a resurrection. That's the main point that Paul is teaching against these false teachers who have said that the final resurrection has already happened. Paul is saying, no, you can be confident that though our bodies will die, we will be given new bodies. And with our own eyes, we'll see our Redeemer.

37:24We could be confident that we will be perfected and glorified, we'll be raised again and clothed in immortal immediately. Mortality to dwell with God forever. Paul is telling Timothy to remind his congregation of these. Remind his congregation of these truths that they need to endure, that they should not deny Christ, that they should not give in to these false teachers, that they should not be faithless, that they should trust the Lord. And Timothy is to repeat these truths. He's to remember who he is serving, that he is serving before the eyes of the one who spoke the scriptures.

38:07He's serving before the Lord. And so when he handles the scriptures, he needs to handle them carefully. He needs to do his best to be approved and unashamed. Repeat the truth. Remember your master and refuse to swerve. Don't give in to the hot topics of the day and swerve. Don't give in to what the culture says you need to preach about and swerve. Don't give in to itching ears and swerve. Instead, you preach the truth in season and out of season, and you handle it rightly.

38:47And you stick to what is sure like a foundation. God's word is sure. God Himself is sure. He is faithful. Even when we're faithful. Faithless. The truth is sure. The real bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is sure. And our own real bodily resurrection is sure. We can count on it. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We thank you that we can go to your word and trust. And Father, we long with all of our hearts that each of us would be people that are growing in the knowledge of your word so that we can handle it rightly, encourage one another.

40:03Help us know about the resurrection. Help us look forward in confident hope that what you say in your word is true. Help us expect it and long for it. Help us never be taken captive by irreverent babble and false knowledge. Help us cling to your word, cling to your promises, and love your word. We thank you for an opportunity this morning to worship together, to study your word together, to sing together, to pray together. We thank you for the strong relationship between Redeemer Baptist Church and Emmanuel Baptist Church. We thank you for all the joy and the life that you're giving both of these churches. We pray that you would cause each of these churches to be lampstands that stand up for the truth, that joyfully, lovingly, with goodness and kindness and joy, stand up for the truth. Guard the deposit. Pass it on to the next generation.

41:31Help us be faithful. In Jesus' name, amen.