Stay the Course: A Death Worth Dying For - 2 Timothy 2:8-14

7:07The charge to remember our risen Lord. If you think about it, if you were to put this in context, and those of you who might have read chapter 1 before you got here, you've done well because then you've got the context a little bit better. But just a few paragraphs before this, in chapter 1, verses 7 through 8, Paul encouraged Timothy with a lot of words. I just want to point out a few of them. Them. First in 1, 7 through 8, then I'm going to point out a few more.

7:35Paul penned this book, he's in a prison, and he writes Timothy, and he says to him in verse 7, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. Now, if you were here last week, you saw that word suffering came up quite a bit. Glance down over at verses 11 through 12 in chapter 1. He says this, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher, for this reason I also suffer. There it is. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. He knows that he's going to suffer. He knows that he's suffering. He's in a prison, so of course he's suffering, but he knows there's even more to come. Look at verse 3 in chapter 2.

8:37Verse 3 says this, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. And then he talks to us about three kinds of professions that suffer hardship. The athlete works very hard to be the best at his or her game. Of course, the soldier has to work very hard. They're in a setting that's very dangerous. They have to be in shape. And then the hard-working farmer. They didn't have the kind of farm tools we have today. They had to work by the sweat of their brow. They had to work with their hands and with sore backs. And so this is the kind of suffering that he presents to us to understand. So why does all this have to happen? Well, there's a reason. It's because suffering is likened to the hardship of making disciples. He wants us to know that making disciples is not an easy venture. If you think about it, 2,000 years ago, there was suffering going on. There was persecution going on. Paul was sitting in prison because of the defense for the gospel. And he's telling Timothy, expect the same thing. So, discipleship is tough. Look at chapter 2, verse 8. I just want to repeat that verse again. He says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel. That's the charge to remember. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. That should be your main charge for your motivation to move forward. As we seek to fulfill the Lord's great commission, we must remember the risen Lord. That's the centerpiece of Christianity. That's the centerpiece of the Bible. Jesus rose from the dead. So the first part of the mandate really requires us to obey this command, this charge. You must remember that Jesus rose from the dead. Because if you don't remember that, and you try to lead somebody to Christ or train somebody in Christ, you've forgotten about the resurrection. You're really not doing anybody any service. You're just working hard.

10:31Well, we see in verse 9 the mandate to constantly remember not only that Jesus came back from the dead, but also that he's a descendant from David. That's important. He's a descendant of King David from the line of Judah. Paul's gospel message to Timothy included Jesus' resurrection, yes, but also this kingly lineage from the line of David. Turn over to Galatians chapter 1, verse 12. Galatians 1:12, and I want to bring this to you because he talks about, he says these words, my gospel according to my gospel. And notice how Paul received what he refers to in 2 Timothy, how he received what he refers to as, quote-unquote, my gospel. So in Galatians 1.12, he says this, For I neither received it, that's the gospel, the message that God had given him, that Christ had given him, I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. When Paul says my gospel, we need to remember that he received it directly from the risen Lord. If you'll recall in Acts chapter 9, you can read specifically what happened to him when Jesus stopped him on the way to Damascus to kill Christians. And then for a period of time, he received the gospel directly from the Lord. And that's what he's talking about here. Keeping with that theme, turn over to 1 Corinthians 15.

11:59And as you're turning to 1, 1 Corinthians 15, I would say this, that many of us in this room have seen a dead person, but I can guarantee you none of us in this room have seen somebody who was dead and who was raised from the dead three days later. That would be something you'd probably remember very well. And so Paul is saying here that this is something that he remembers. He wants us to remember the risen Lord.

12:26Well, such is the case with Paul, as I said, he had seen the risen Christ. So in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 8, I just want to point out a few things. I'll just read through it and make a few comments as we go. But he's talking about the people who had seen the risen Lord. So verse 1, he says this, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand. Verse 2, by which also you are saved, if you're saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in him in vain. Now, in vain, what does that mean? It means haphazard, or it means to no avail or to no result. In other words, you can believe in some, as I like to call it, God facts and Jesus trivia, but that doesn't make you a believer in Christ. In other words, one who trusts in him, who's repented from sin, and trusts in him with the actions of your life. Verse 3, he says, For I delivered to you as it first importance, which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.

13:30In other words, I'm preaching to you what I received. He says, I'm not preaching to you my own agenda or my own contrived words, but I'm telling you what Jesus told me to say. Verse 4. Here it is, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. And after he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, that's Jesus' brother, then to all the apostles, and the last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. This is the gospel that he's calling us, he's calling Timothy to embrace way back in 2 Timothy. So the message is that scores of people saw the resurrected Christ, and it's something they remembered. But by the time Timothy received this letter, 2 Timothy, there weren't so many people. In fact, Paul said a lot of them had already passed on. He's reminding him. We know that he rose from the dead. There were eyewitnesses there who saw it, who testified to it. They saw him and they heard his last words. They saw the spear enter his chest. And some placed his body in a tomb. Remember Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph. Thank you. A Varimathea, they had their arms around his body and laid him in a tomb.

15:06They can testify to it. Thank you for the help. So more than 500 people saw Jesus alive after his brutal death and subsequent burial. You can check out Paul's encounter again in Acts 9. You can read about his testimony in Acts 21, 22, and Acts 26. Read about his testimony. Paul would never have forgotten this risen Lord. It's his memory that motivated him to suffer such severe persecution. He knew exactly what Jesus said to him. He saw him, and he would suffer it. The text tells us in 2 Timothy 2:10, for the sake of the elect, for the sake of those that God had chosen. That's why he's suffering these things.

15:50Paul had even set some doubters straight about Jesus' resurrection, which is why he wrote 1 Corinthians 15. If you're still in 1 Corinthians 15, just glance down to verse 13 for a moment, and then we'll make our way back to 2 Timothy. But look what he says in verses 13 and 14 in 1 Corinthians 15. He says this, but if there's no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Our preaching is haphazard. Our preaching has no result. And your faith is in vain. Your faith is haphazard. Your faith has no result. So if Jesus is not reaching, Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, then neither will you raise from the dead. That's why he gives us a charge. The charge is to remember. If Jesus didn't raise from the dead, there's no reason for us to be here. Why would we even come? We'd just be another empty religion roaming the pasturelands of the world. Jesus rose from the dead. That's why we're here. Jesus' resurrection is the greatest human event in history. That's why he gives us the charge to remember. Untold millions have been faithful in 2 Timothy 2:2. Remember 2 Timothy 2:2? I'll just remind you, I'll read it again from last week. He says, These things which you have heard in the presence from me, and in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So the message is that for a couple thousand years at least, there are millions of people who have displayed the message, even such that we heard it and repented of our sin and have called on Christ. We must be faithful to spreading that word as well. You can see back in 2 Timothy 2.8 that there's more to remember. There's more to remember than the fact that Jesus came back to life. The mandate encourages an ongoing results of the resurrection, too. You say, well, what are the ongoing results of the resurrection? Is it just Jesus or is there more to that? Well, in verse 11, we note that if we die in him, we live in him. If we die with him, we live with him.

18:00This is where we get the title for tonight's message. A death worth living for now. Again, he's in prison. He's at the very end of his life. It won't be too much longer if church history tells us accurately the events that happened, that Paul was soon cut in half after he wrote these messages. So the mandate to remember Jesus' resurrection encourages the downtrodden, encourages those whose life they might think doesn't matter. Well, it matters if you're in Christ. It matters because you will rise with him as well into eternal glory. But it will cost you everything, right? Discipleship will cost you everything. We know from church history that there are millions of people that have died for the sake of what we're talking about right now. Well, there's a second part of the mandate to carefully consider, and that's the result. The result. Though we may be silenced, God's Word, we read in verse 9, is never silenced. Though he may be in prison, Paul, God's Word is never imprisoned. It's always let loose. So, as we saw last week, a good soldier of Christ is prepared to be a good soldier who suffers hardship. Nobody says to a soldier entering the Marines, hey, look, this is going to be an easy thing for you. Just sit back, have some coffee, have some donuts, and everything's going to be okay. That's not what happens. It's a tough life. So we notice that the result or the consequences of preaching the gospel may lead to suffering hardship. Ask any missionary in a foreign country who's suffering hardship. In verse 9, Paul says they treated him like a what? Like a criminal. They treated him like a criminal. It's interesting that this word criminal is only used twice in the New Testament. Twice. The other time it's used is in reference to the criminals who were crucified next to Jesus. Think about those guys. Those guys, they admitted while they were hanging on the cross that they were criminals, that they had done bad stuff. Well, Paul writes this letter from prison, probably the two-celled Mammartine prison at that time, just a two-cell place. It was small because the people had occupied the two cells in there. It was a stone. You can look this up if you search the Mammartine prison. You can see modern photographs of it. It's just a small jailhouse. And the reason it's small is because the next step was death. So they didn't need a whole lot of people in there at the same time. So he was very likely writing his last out of 2 Timothy here.

20:33Think about it. From prison, he writes this letter, and he's encouraging Timothy to beware that he could go through the same kinds of suffering. The word in prison suggests more than just being locked up in a rock prison. It has to do with restraints or shackles or even chains. He was probably tied, shackled somehow, to a cold stone wall as he writes this book. But notice the word of God in verse 9. Notice what it isn't. It's not imprisoned. It's not shackled down like he is. In other words, we continually, as we continually remember the gospel in verse 8, we must remember to teach others as well. We've been asking the question: are you faithful, available, teachable? Are you fat, faithful, available, teachable? Are you like what Paul's looking for in 2 Timothy 2:2? Are you the kind of person that will take God's word to the next generation who will entrust it to others as well? Well, it takes a faithful, available person to do that. God's word isn't shackled, so we must not silence it either. We must be ready and prepared to do that. You know, as U.S. citizens in our First Amendment culture, we look at our culture, we look at our First Amendment, we can say we can say anything we want. We're protected here in the U.S., we can say whatever we want about the risen Lord.

21:58Right? I mean, can't we? We're very open to that. Some Americans think it's the First Amendment that protects them, that unshackles them, and so they're free to do and say as they want. Well, what happens when our First Amendment is taken away? What happens to the liberal churches, right? What happens to the conservative churches? This week, as you think about our responsibilities as citizens of the United States, we get to vote in the primaries for who our next president would be. And I mentioned it this morning. I mean, Look through Scripture, the person that you're going to vote for, how do they best reflect passages like Romans 1? How do they best reflect passages like Ephesians 5, verses 1 through 6? Or there's many other passages you could consider, but let that be your guidepost. There are those who would love to take away your First Amendment rights and not allow you to speak, but you know what? That would never stop us from speaking forth the truth, even if it meant death, because God's Word is not shackled. If we're hesitant to speak at the resurrection for fear and scorn, then we deny the proclamation of the gospel to avoid some minor teenager-like awkwardness in our discussions of the Word of God with people. We should never be ashamed. Paul says it here: never be ashamed of God's Word, even if you feel awkward about it.

23:23Is our faith in vain? Paul says, No. Is our faith empty or haphazard? No, it's not. Scripturally, not, maybe practically for some. We find out in verse 12: if we deny him, then he denies us. That's a faithful teaching. The idea is that even though Paul is attached to this cold wall, this mammitine prison, God's word is never, nor will ever, be in prison, First Amendment or not. He says, Timothy, prepare yourself for suffering. Well, there's a third part of the mandate to consider, and that's. The purpose. What is the purpose of this mandate to remember? Well, for the disciples, it's so that they can get the word of God out to those whom God has chosen. Look at verse 10. The purpose of the mandate for discipleship, he says, for this reason in verse 10. Meaning, because I'm tethered to a wall, I'm facing death.

24:27I endure this for a purpose. In other words, Paul's willing to endure this because it meets the goal. The goal is to reach God's elect, God's chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Now, think about it. He's talking about God's chosen, and then he says, well, they're not saved yet. It's his job to introduce them to the gospel, Romans 10, so that they would come to know Christ. And so he's being faithful to that, and he wants Timothy to be faithful to it, and he wants you to be faithful to it, and we know that from verse 2. And trust these things to faithful men, ladies, that includes you, who will be able or capable to teach others also. That's the reason. I think we should take a look at Paul's, how he describes the benefits of being in prison just a bit further. If you want to join with me, I'll be reading out of Philippians chapter 1, verse 12 through 14. He talks about a benefit for being in prison, for being shut. Shackled for being tied down in prison. And here's what he writes: Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 14. He says, Now, I want you to know, brethren, my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

25:43You think about that, he's sitting in jail. And he's saying, just the sheer fact that I'm in jail, it's produced something better than I could ever have dreamed of. Verse 13, so that my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else. The Praetorian Guard, that was the prison guards. The reason he's there is known to the guards. Verse 14. And that most of the brethren, those are believers, trusting in the Lord because of what? Trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Did you get that? He's in prison. He's faithful. People are coming to Christ because of his imprisonment, because of the message. And they too are doing 2 Timothy 2:2. They're teaching the next generation. They're faithful, and they know it's going to cost them. I'm floored by that. You say, well, just how successful was Paul's unleashed gospel in prison? Well, if you'd flip in a few pages in Philippians 4, verse 22, I want you to see an obscure text there that I don't think you should. Ever forget if you ever run into a situation where you're persecuted for your faith. This leaped out on the page to me when I first read it, when I was going through some hard times, even with my own walk and having to face some persecution over it. Notice what he writes here. This is fascinating. Philippians 4:22. He says, All the saints greet you. Who's a saint? A saint is a believer in Christ. That's all a saint is. All the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar's, Nero's own household.

27:35Wait, isn't Nero the guy that killed Paul? He's saying, I'm in prison. I'm suffering, Timothy. And then over in Philippians, he says, The people in Caesar's house greet he led people in Nero's family to Christ as he's suffering in prison. That's encouraging, isn't it? That's encouraging. Suffering has a purpose. God used suffering in Paul's life as a platform to spread the gospel. Isn't it interesting that the church's strongest periods of growth in church history come at a point of persecution?

28:16The church of China probably has more believers, the nation of China, probably has more believers than the United States of America. And yet, in a lot of cases, being a Christian over there is illegal, yet it's growing. Philippians 1:14. The brethren speak of the word of God without fear. When you're uncomfortable, perhaps even suffering, how will you take advantage of your situation to declare the gospel so that God's elect may obtain salvation? Be faithful. Be available. Be teachable. I love this. One of the baby kids drove this. I'm not sure which one of you did this. You did it. Okay.

28:59It's interesting. You know, I preached on this whole faithful, available, teachable thing, and then this is found over in the education building in an obscure room over there, and it's drawn out. I'm like, the kids get it. So, are we faithful, available, teachable? We know from Ephesians 1 that the Father chose some people before the foundation of the world, before Genesis 1, that they would be holy and blameless before him. A discipler's mandate accords with God's election to reach those whom he had chosen.

29:29Through your proclamation of the gospel, in what direction is your life headed? How does that path include the mandate to reach others? That's why we're having this series on discipleship and shepherding, because we want to know how can we be faithful to God who tells us to be faithful in 2 Timothy 2:2. So we said that if Emmanuel is to grow, we must consider the three M's of discipleship. The second M is the motive, the motive of discipleship. We've seen the charge, we've seen the result, and we've seen Seen the purpose in terms of the mandate, but now the second M is the motive, the motive of discipleship. You're going to notice that the motive of discipleship is a life or death matter. In verse 11, if you look at verse 11, we see these words. He says, it is a trustworthy statement. And immediately your minds would probably be thinking, well, where do I need to go in the Old Testament to find this trustworthy statement? Well, you would look long and hard in the Old Testament. It's not there. This is probably a statement that was made during the founding of the church in these verses. And Paul's saying, hey, this is a trustworthy statement. It's probably a hymn. It could be just some quote, some creative structure of some phraseology. It's kind of rhythmic in its focus. In verses 11 through 13, let me just read it. He says, it's a trustworthy statement. If we died with him, we will live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So you can see the rhythm in the statement there. It's kind of poetic in its own way.

31:11So it gives us a motive that appears in four conditional statements. Conditional statements, you know what they are. Conditional is, if this, then that. If you scratch my back, then I'll scratch yours. And that's kind of what this is. So he gives four if-then statements. The first two lines tell us what happens to people who surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The second two lines describe the future of those who refuse to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Notice our motivating phrase in verse 11. Here it is. For if we die with him, we also live with him.

31:47If we die with him, we also live with him. These are the kinds of logical fallacies that drive philosophical wonks up a wall, isn't it? It's an opposite. How can you live and also die, and how can you die and also live? Logically, if you're dead, you're not alive. If you're alive, you're not dead. Galatians chapter 2, verse 20 says this. I'll just read it. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul is even talking about in his own life, this death that he partook and this life that he took on with Christ. For the redeemed, when they crucified Christ, they crucified us. That's what this passage is talking about, for those who have trusted in Christ. Because Christ rose from the dead, we live with him both now and on into eternal glory. Verse 11. You can see it there. Verses 11 and 10, or 10 and 11. Well, there's a second line, that second conditional statement in verse 12. I'll read it again. Again, if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us.

33:08This is where it gets a little bit tricky because we need to remember that Paul is writing from prison, right? It's been made pretty clear. He tells Timothy to suffer hardship with him as a good soldier. In other words, if you endure persecution and sufferings that are coming your way, you will reign to judge with Christ in the millennial kingdom. We won't go there, but 1 Corinthians 6:2 addresses this whole thing. But if you, in the heat of the battle, will deny Christ, then he says that he will deny you.

33:39Wow. You say, well, what about Peter? Didn't he deny Christ, and shouldn't Christ therefore stick to his word and deny him? What do we do with that? You see, he denied Christ three times, and Jesus gave him grace, didn't he? Jesus gave Peter grace. Yes, Peter received grace, and Peter received forgiveness, but that describes what the Lord did in Peter's life. Don't miss this. Peter's denial isn't a prescription for us to deny Christ and think that he'll not deny us.

34:19It's a description of an action that took place, not a prescription for us. Jesus's grace with Peter, we can't just say, Lord, you. You did it with Peter. I'm going to hold you accountable. You've got to do this for me. It's grace. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. And as you're turning there, 2 Timothy 2:12 is emphatic. It's prescriptive, meaning you cannot count on it that Jesus, you can count on it, that Jesus will deny you if you deny him.

34:53Matthew chapter 10, verses 31 through 33, we read these words. So then, he says, So do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows. Therefore, if everyone who confesses me before men, I will confess him before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven. So Jesus is saying the same thing that Paul is writing about in 2 Timothy. And I bet Peter would be the first to say that anything beyond that is grace. He experienced it in his own life, which we cannot demand of Christ. I know there was a time in my high school years, before that, I thought I knew Christ, and afterwards, my life wasn't going like I wanted it to go. God wasn't giving me the things I wanted, so I just decided, well, I'm an atheist now, and so I denied him. I got grace. I got what Peter got. There's coming a time when somebody is going to deny Christ, and they're not going to get that grace. Don't tread on the grace that is Christ's. Those who Have repented and have submitted to Christ won't deny him, neither will Christ deny them. Well, there's a third line of those conditional statements, and in verse 13, he says, If we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he cannot deny himself.

36:18He cannot deny himself. Those who refuse to submit to the Lordship of Christ are in a state of ongoing unfaithfulness. Notwithstanding the rejection of the unfaithful, God continues in his ongoing faithfulness. The talk is cheap, isn't it? Notice Paul isn't dealing with people's verbal expressions of their head knowledge about what they know about Jesus or what they know about the Father. Those who deny God, those who deny Christ don't deny God facts and Jesus' trivia. They believe in those things. But have they assimilated them in their lives? Have they repented of sin? Or is it just rattling facts around in their head?

36:58The kind of denial that Paul writes about in verses 13 and 14 is, well, it's much greater. Suffering and persecution puts both the cheap talker and the true believer at odds with one another, to the test, actually. Are they really in Christ? I mean, are they in Christ? Or do they just simply know God facts? They just simply know things about Jesus. Glance back at 2 Timothy 2.13 again. I just want to look at this. He says, he remains faithful because he isn't capable. He isn't able to deny himself.

37:42Faithfulness, by its very nature, acts in accordance with what it says. We call it integrity, don't we? A man of integrity keeps his word. A woman living for Christ, a woman who is a woman of integrity, she keeps her word. Let's revisit that Matthew 10 passage one more time because I didn't read the next verse, verse 34. He says, Do not think, let me read verse 33, but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Verse 34, do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He says, I'll be faithful to doing what I say. If you deny me before the Father, I will deny you before the Father as well. The Father will faithfully carry out his promises because 2 Timothy 2:13, he says he cannot deny himself. There are consequences that we see here in both Matthew 10, 34 and 2 Timothy 2.13. There are consequences for denying Christ. So, what's our motivation for discipleship? Well, positively and negatively, positively. First, those who die with Christ will live with him. That's positive. Those who endure suffering will reign with him. You'll judge the nations along with him, negatively. Those who deny Christ, Christ will deny them, and those who are not faithful to Christ will experience Jesus' faithful promises to deny them before the Father. He's faithful to keep his promises.

39:25All this takes us back to verse 2. 2 Timothy 2, 2. We have to keep going back here because this is his message of discipleship. This is what he's referring to in all these verses. The things, Timothy, which you have seen and heard, excuse me, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many eyewitnesses, and trust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's the message. All the rest of this is surrounding that message.

39:55Are you sensing that you must be equipped to disciple others? Remember, first few messages I was saying, what if somebody were to come to you today and say, would you disciple me in God's word? Would you tell me how to live this, how to understand it? What would you do? That's what this is all about. We've been learning about how to do that. Well, in order to disciple others, you need to have a method. You need to have a method to disciple others. We've seen the mandate. We've seen the motive. Now it's time for the method, the method of discipleship. Verses 14 and 15.

40:30Let's consider those real quick. Let me just read them. He says, remind them, these people that you're discipling, remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. So Paul gives two examples for discipleship, two examples of methods for discipleship. One of the methods is negative, isn't it? You can see it in verse 14. The other is positive in verse 15. First, the negative method. He says this, we find in the word remind in verse 14, that remind is an ongoing continuous action. Keep on reminding these people in chapter 2, verse 2, those who are going to disciple the future generations, keep reminding them that you must continually remind them of these things, he says. Again, we must remind others what is spelled out in 2.2.

41:34Only in 2.2, only, excuse me, in verse 14, it's in the presence of God. In 2.2, it's in the presence of eyewitnesses. If you look at 2.2 and verse 14 as well, he tells them, look, Timothy, you learned all these things in the presence of eyewitnesses. And then he says, now in verse 14, remind them in the presence of God. The words, these things in verse 14, is the whole content of the Bible. It's not Paul's agenda or your agenda. My agenda, it's scripture. So the reminding is never complete. Notice the ongoing reminder comes with a solemn warning in verse 14. Do you see it there in verse 14? The warning? It's so clear. He warns them not to wrangle about words. Literally, don't participate in word wars. Don't fight with your words, Timothy.

42:25Turn over to 1 Timothy 6, just one page before 2 Timothy. It gives us an example of sound biblical words as opposed to these kind of words that Paul said to avoid. 1 Timothy 6, verses 3 through 5, we read this. He says, If anyone advocates a different doctrine, something non-biblical and does not agree with the sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, suspicions, verse 5, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of great gain. I like the way one commentator summarized what we just have seen here. He says, In the end, disputing about words seeks not the victory. Of the truth, but the victory of the speaker. You ever been there? You want to prove your point so that you can win an argument and you have a verbal battle about something that may not even be biblical?

43:45And as Paul puts it in 2 Timothy 2.14, these useless words lead to the ruin. Do you see the word ruin there? To the ruin of the hearers. What does that mean? Well, the word is catastrophe. That's the Greek word that we translate into ruin. He says these word battles result in catastrophe for the hearer. So that these useless words have catastrophic results for those who have been deceived into participating in these verbal wars. The only other place this word is used is in 2 Peter 2, 6. Here's what he says. I'll just read it to you. Only other place in the New Testament this word is used. And it's in the context of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he says this, And if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, that's catastrophe, that's ruin. If he condemned them to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter, word wars. Fighting about words produces the kinds of destruction that God laid on Sodom and Gomorrah.

45:01Word wars. It's fighting about words that aren't even biblical or scriptural. Does it mean that we can't talk about things that are biblical? That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about word wars that lead to catastrophe. Well, let's take a look at the second method for the discipleship. This time, it's a positive method of how to disciple somebody that is consistent with verse 2. You see, look at verse 15. You see the word diligence there. It's a biblical discipleship requires diligence. Diligence is working hard to gain approval about accuracy in teaching God's Word to others.

45:41The goal of diligence is the opposite of the word catastrophic or word wars, where one comes out to fight as a victor. A workman teaching from God's word accurately will not be ashamed because his words are based on God's word. In short, Paul wants us to know that a sound approach to discipleship is discipleship about scripture, not fighting about words. Discipleship requires diligence, just as diligence for a soldier or diligence as an athlete or diligence as a farmer. The message is not your agenda, as I said before. It's not Paul's agenda. He's very clear with Timothy and verse 2.

46:30Teach what he had been taught. If the message you communicate is scriptural, your method will be approved by God in verse 15, and you won't be ashamed. Well, when it's all been said and done, and trusting God's word to others, who will be able to, shall we say, qualified in verse 2 to teach others, is what we're looking for here, what Paul is looking for, who will be able to teach still more. That's discipleship. That's a good, sound biblical understanding of biblical theology of discipleship. And as we bring this whole series to a close, it all comes down to this: I love the artwork here: the faithful, available, and teachable. You've got to be faithful to the Lord. You have to be available so you can be able to teach others, and you have to have an ability to do so. Faithful, available, and teachable, so that the next generation will know him and also make him known. It won't be easy. He says, Suffer hardship with me, Timothy. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it for God's elect so that they too can hear the word of God and come to Christ in saving faith, come to Jesus for eternal glory. That's what we see in the text. So, if we circle back and we say, what have we learned today? Well, the whole thrust of this message was: discipleship is a life or death process. We see that in the suffering, we see that in the persecution. It requires God's approval in verse 15. In other words, study. To show yourself approved of God, don't get it wrong, don't mess with the original intent of the author, so that you can accurately teach the word of truth to others. Well, there were three ways that we could understand this: the three M's, the mandate, the motive, and the method. Mandate, motive, and method, and you can see it right there in the text.

48:20That is our message of shepherding and discipleship. That I think God wants us to focus on the truth of it all. But as I said now, what do we do with all this? We've been looking at this for two months. We know what the scripture says. We could probably develop this for another three years and not mind the depths of all that's important about teaching others. But we've done enough. Our heads are full. We can come back next week and I'll do a little bit of a summary of what we looked at, but then I want to tell you exactly what we're going to do: what we're going to do in terms of discipling the next generation, discipling the next people. Because eventually, we want for anybody who teaches here to go through this discipleship process. Anybody that eventually would become an elder will have gone through this process. So, this is important. This is the life of our church that we would be about training the next generation to train others still more in Christ. So, that's the message. Why don't we close in a word of prayer? And then, after I close in prayer, everybody is free to go about your evening and your week and have a wonderful week. Father, we're so grateful that you would bring us here to hear the word of truth. We thank you that Timothy, even though he was tethered down to a cold prison cell, perhaps even awaiting death with other people who had been condemned to death, he was faithful to write out this last book, this last instruction. We know that he was faithful. Timothy received the word. The church of Ephesus grew. Timothy went on, and others became pastors of the church of Ephesus. John the Apostle became the pastor there. We know that others pastored that church. We thank you for their faithfulness, Lord, to teach the next generation. But we also know this church of Ephesus, where Timothy was the pastor, that 30 years later in the book of Revelation, that this is a church that left their first love. They had great, great doctrine, but they forgot about their love for you and their love for people. We pray, Lord, that that would not be indicative of Emmanuel, that we would be just the opposite, that we'd just have great, wonderful teaching as we do, and that we'd also be about those who are loving Christ, loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving our neighbor as ourself. Lord, I pray for the young people of this body that you would take them and prepare them, Lord, to be the pastors and missionaries of our future. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.