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October 22 2 Timothy 3

Good morning. I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is good to be here together. Ask you to turn in the scriptures to 2 Timothy chapter three, or as the British would say, two Timothy chapter three. It is a warm, warm, incredibly encouraging sight to see all that we have seen in the course of the past few days here on this campus and see students and so many others, the board of trustees meeting earlier this week and the Southern Seminary Foundation gathered here now and such dear friends to the seminary. And then we had the preview conference of Boyce just at the end of last week, and now we welcome those who are here for the preview conference for the seminary. It means a very great deal that all of you are here. And it is something of a reminder of the fact that we as human beings live in cycles and institutions live by cycles.

One of the most familiar of these cycles to all of us is the school year. And I think it’s really interesting to note that throughout just so much of human history, something like this has happened. This is just what happens. The fall, this is what happens. The spring, this is what happens. And of course, in the Christian tradition, once in the formation of Western civilization, Christianity took on such a central role, then the entire year revolved around the festival of the incarnation in December and the festival of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in the spring and then various times of Thanksgiving and all the rest. And I will just tell you that as you get older, they pile up.

They do. I mean, you look at a Christmas picture, when was that? Mary will know. She always knows, but I have to ask her, “What is this? Where was this?” And when the year goes on and the years pile on, memories are sometimes harder to fix. Where exactly was this and what was I doing there? And all that just sometimes becomes fuzzy. However, I will tell you there’s some things that aren’t fuzzy in my memory at all. And I think the older I get, I realize that some of these memories are just so important and they’re so vital to understanding who I am that I have the memories very clearly. One of those was the memory of setting foot on this campus for the very first time. I felt the call of God. I felt it in an overwhelming way. I didn’t know all that it meant. But I did know that something was very right in God’s purpose for my life and me being here.

I had no idea that I would be back as president and that I would spend my life here. We would spend our lives here with Mary and we would invest our lives together and we are pressing on, but we don’t press on at the expense of what we have learned in the past. By God’s grace, we press on with the edification, the armor, the encouragement of so many years in the past. But there is a great shift that happens. It’s a great shift that happens, I can say in a man’s life. It’s a great shift that happens and I’ll just tell you, it’s awkward at times, but it has to happen. It has to happen in terms of Western civilization. It has to happen in terms of the future of the family. It has to happen in terms of the entire culture. It has to happen in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has arranged things by his sovereign pleasure in such a way that a young man becomes an older man, becomes an even older man, becomes an old man. The good news for the Christian church is that by God’s grace, behind an old man is a young man. That’s the glory of what we have in the two letters from Paul to Timothy. That’s the glory of what we have also with Paul’s letter to Titus. We turn now to the second of Timothy’s letters in chapter two, that is to say, 2 Timothy chapter three. And here we see the apostle Paul pour his heart out to Timothy and we’re in the middle of an argument and we know it and we’re going to rehearse that in a moment, but we’re going to fall here in the middle of his argument. In verse one of chapter three, Paul writes,

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jonas and Jambres oppose Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith, but they will not give very far for their folly will be plain to all as it was of those two men. You however have followed my teaching, my conduct, my amen life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

I’m so thankful for God’s word. I’m so thankful for this particular passage. I’m so thankful for the fact that I can remember this passage being preached to me. I can remember when I’ve had the opportunity to preach this passage.

However, in so many of those cases, the text selection has been different. As a matter of fact, I think a lot of people know some of 2 Timothy 3 basically because of the way the chapter ends.

This is an especially spectacular statement concerning scripture, “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And then that’s so often rightly just the introduction to the next phrase which comes in 2 Timothy chapter four, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.”

We can understand why it’s often preached that way because the natural flow is from this glorious statement of the inspiration and authority of scripture, the word of God to the command, the imperative, “preach the word in season and out of season.” This morning what I want to do is to look at this passage in terms of what precedes it and then recognize that this majestic statement on scripture kind of sneaks up on us. We have to look at the context here of 2 Timothy. We would do well to look at 1 Timothy also, but we don’t have the time for that. So just look at where we are in this argument as Paul writes this second letter we have in the canon of scripture to Timothy. And just remember how he begins in chapter one and we’ll just skip down to where he tells Timothy that he is to “guard until the day that has been entrusted to him all that has been taught to him.” Look in verse 13, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” This is just incredibly helpful. Christianity is not a mood, it’s not merely a lifestyle. It is all based upon the truth that is revealed in God’s word and that doctrine, which is how it comes to us, there are people who don’t like propositional statements. If you don’t like propositional statements, you don’t like the gospel. Propositional statements are these absolutely important statements in which the truth of the gospel, the truth of God’s revelation are made clear in words. There’s a subject and a predicate and a period at the end. There is, according to what Paul writes to Timothy here in this first chapter of 2 Timothy, there is a pattern, the pattern of sound words. The very first publication, the very first publication of one religious publishing house was simply called sound words simply because Christianity comes down to sound words, a sound pattern of words, a good deposit. This is a treasure that’s been entrusted to us and we are to guard it.

And then after some other statements, we come to chapter two of 2 Timothy where Paul writes to Timothy, “You then my child, my son, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses in trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering is a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Now I have preached that passage many times and by God’s grace will again, it’s an astounding passage for a number of reasons.

Number one, in this particular passage, speaking to young ministers, the apostle Paul says, here are three metaphors for you. There are three metaphors for the Christian ministry. A young man preparing for ministry should have these three metaphors, these three pictures in mind. And the first one is of a soldier. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. We’re to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now in the Roman Empire, you didn’t have to look far to find a soldier. And you didn’t have to look at the crowd and wonder who was and was not a soldier. They were dressed like soldiers. They were dressed in armor. They were carrying spears. They were armed with a sword. They were always ready for whatever. They were the force that maintained order in the empire and conquered in the name of the empire.

But it was also obvious to people who watched soldiers that they suffered a very great deal. It’s not easy walking around with all that armor. It’s not easy putting your life on the line continuously. And in a normal circumstance, when you’re maintaining order like this, your life is almost entirely boring except for the few moments in which it’s not boring at all.

It is interesting. The apostle Paul picks the picture of a soldier, which is also, remember the soldier wearing the Roman armor is the symbol of imperial Rome. It’s a reach. The Apostle Paul doesn’t have to reach far for the picture, but it’s a reach considering the fact that he chooses a secular soldier and says, look at this as a model. And the second is an athlete. And of course the Olympic background, that’s very much in the phrase here that the athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Even in this season, and you guys know what a phenomenal sports fan I am. You know how I just can’t wait for the next sporting event. But I have been fascinated this year by how many calls I have noted or heard about where someone’s broken the rules and there’s a penalty. And sometimes that penalty can be decisive, if the athlete is crowned, he has to run the race according to the rules.

Okay, so we can picture culturally the accessibility to the apostle Paul and to Timothy of the soldier and the athlete. It’s the third of these metaphors that Paul uses that is most remarkable, a farmer. “It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first year of the crops.” Now you’ll notice it’s the shortest one because there is no reference to the apostle Paul having anything to do with farming in the entirety of his life. As a matter of fact, he was the product of an urban culture and he was very much at home in an urban culture. And as a matter of fact, you look at the letters, they are largely to Christian churches and urban cultures. The Roman empire honored farming, but considered it beneath the dignity of other callings.

Now, the scripture doesn’t see it that way. And you’ll notice here, the apostle Paul says; Be a good soldier, be an athlete who competes according to the rules, emulate a hardworking farmer. Very interesting and that’s just in chapter two. And then you have another statement of the gospel in beautiful form here, beginning of our eight, “Remember Christ Jesus risen from the dead, the offspring of David is preached in my gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” In the next section of that very same chapter in the flow of this letter, Paul writes to Timothy in 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.” And so the scripture shows up so quickly, “rightly handling the word of truth,” “rightly dividing” is the way I memorized it from the King James, rightly interpreting.

So not only does the athlete have to compete according to the rules, but the exegete has to act according to the rules. And by the way, the failure in athletics is spectacularly embarrassing, but the failure in exegesis and interpreting the word of God comes with far greater, graver consequences. Rightly handling the word of truth. And then he speaks directly… In the later part of this passage, he speaks to Timothy, “So flee youthful passions” in verse 22, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.” And then listen to this, “have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know they breed quarrels and the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.”

All right, so that’s the background that brings us to the threshold of what Paul is going to present in chapter three. And it begins with, rightly, English translation is good, “but understand this.” In other words, there is a change, but here’s something else, when we read those first verses of 2 Timothy chapter three, it’s kind of a downer. The bad news before the good news, the hard stuff before the material that follows, he is warned. Timothy is told, and I mean this is really scary stuff, that in the last days there will be times of difficulty. In general terms, we can see that. But how about specifics? “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful and holy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of Godliness, but denying its power.” And then the next three words, “Avoid such people.” Well, you bet!

I mean, here’s something very characteristic of the Apostle Paul in his letters, but in his letters to Timothy and especially in this letter, have you noticed how he piles things up? I mean, he piles the bad things up and he piles the good things up. He piles up all these horrible, evil traits that are demonstrated by horrible, evil people. In the last age… In the last days, they will invade the church. And furthermore, they’re going to take people, they’re going to be persuasive. They’re going to take defenseless women and others. It’s a very specific passage that evidently was a problem that Timothy was going to face. But let’s face it. I mean, I think two or three of these bad things would get my attention, but this many, and have you noticed how he lists other things? And we’ve seen this already. He piles things up when he mentions himself and what he’s experienced, he piles those up. When he’s talking about good things that Timothy is to do, how he is to act, how he is to minister, how his character is to be formed, he piles up things. And then when they’re bad things, wow, does he pile them up? It is interesting. I mean, you notice this because this tells you that it’s an intergenerational issue. Okay? So it’s not only that they’re proud, arrogant, abusive, they’re also disobedient to their parents.

And then it just goes on. “Swollen with conceit, without self-control, brutal, not loving good.” Can you just imagine writing to someone as a prospective pastor and saying, “We’re having some issues in our church. We have a few troublesome people.” Well, in what way are they troublesome? Well, now that you ask, “Lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient parents, ungrateful and holy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of God knows by denying his power,” pretty much that.

Oh, my heavens! My goodness! And remember, he’s trying to encourage a young man in ministry. Good grief. And then you also notice, if you go back to 1 Timothy, in a very similar passage, you have in this case in chapter four of 1 Timothy, you also have the same kind of warning. Look at this now, the spirit expressly says that “in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciousness are seared, who forbid marriage and require absence from foods God created to be received a thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received at Thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of God in prayer.”

I want us before we leave 1 Timothy for a moment to notice how the Apostle Paul shifts. And every one of these warnings, he shifts from a very powerful, I mean, frightening, horrifying warning to Timothy about what may come in ministry, what will come in the last days. And he paints this picture with such vivid colors, but then he immediately, in all of these cases, sends him to work. “If you put these things for the brothers, you’ll be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of the faith,” that pattern of sound words we saw “and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” And then it just goes on. But we have to go back to 2 Timothy chapter three.

We look at this and we recognize in the flow of this kind of letter, there is not only a literary flow that we can almost hear as a rhetorical, as an oratorical flow. We can almost hear him say these things. And I imagine that Timothy as this young pastor, this young protege of the apostle Paul, I can almost be assured he could hear Paul’s voice in reading these words. We come to chapter three, after Timothy has been told that he needs to be a worker, who has no need to be ashamed, who rightly divides the word of truth as we see all of this, we do understand the dangers that Paul lays out, the big trouble that the apostle Paul refers to, and quite frankly, there’s a danger for us, I think, in going over this too quickly. But for the sake of time, we just need to look each other in the eye and say, these are really horrifying things. These warnings are spectacularly bad. It’s good for us to know that opposition to the gospel coming from Satan will show up in people who will come into congregations in order to oppose the gospel, in order to create disorder, in order to cause problems and create factions and lead people away from the truth and lead them into error. I want to tell you just very quickly before we leave this, I think that if I got up at a pastor’s conference and in my own authority said something like this, I think people would dismiss me as an old crank.

But I didn’t come up with this. I read this to you from the inerrant infallible word of God. I read to you from Paul’s encouragement to Timothy. But let me rest you in your conscience because that’s not where this ends. Let me give you heart and hope because with verse 10 of chapter three, everything changes. If I would be asked for a title for this message, it would be drawn from the first words of verse 14, “but as for you.” It changes everything. All that’s true, Timothy. Everything I’ve just told you is as bad as it looks. Actually, it’s worse than it looks. You and your youthful innocence don’t recognize how bad this is.

It’s as bad as it looks. It’s worse than it looks. “But as for you,” the same thing is found at the beginning here of this part of the passage where in verse 10, he says, “You however.” So this is in contrast, in contrast to those who are bringing such pain in the church, who are bringing such division in the church, bringing such evil in the church. “You however,” in contrast, you have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life. He goes on there. I talked about how Paul piles these things up and sometimes in his letters, and it’s true in many of his letters to the churches, he gives these verses we even have memorized and they’re so familiar to us where it’s just word after word after word after word after word. Paul talks about the pattern of sound words, but the Holy Spirit through Paul was giving us a pattern of sound words.

You however, have followed my teaching and here he mentions nine different things. And so you’re talking about piling things up. We saw all the bad things piled up in the early verses of chapter three, so much so that it’s just horrifying. But look at the good things the apostle Paul piles up here beginning in verse 10. First, my teaching. Second, my conduct. Third, my aim in life. Fourth, my faith. Fifth, my patience. Sixth, my love. Seventh, my steadfastness. Eighth, my persecution. And nine, my sufferings. It is interesting that yes, persecution and sufferings come at the end of this.

But Paul says to Timothy, even as these evil men are infecting the church, even as they’re bringing so much poison into the church, even as they’re preaching in defiance of the pattern of sound words, even as they are leading so many astray, you are there as the minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the one who shows up with the pattern of sound words. You’re the one who shows up to guard the deposit that has been entrusted to you. You’re the one who shows up, as we will see later in this letter, to preach the word in season and out of season. You’re the one to show up. And how do you know to do this? The apostle Paul is very candid. Well, for one thing, you’ve been with me.

And even as these evil people show all their evil traits, it is interesting how he piles this up. He says to Timothy first, “my teaching.” Now, I could camp out here for a semester. I just want to tell you that I think the most wonderful theological education possible would be being Timothy to Paul. If you have an opportunity to be Timothy to Paul, take it. But you need to know the purpose of this school as a theological seminary is to follow the example found in this passage. It is to put men of God in the classroom to teach the men of God who are coming in to preach and teach the word of God. And you know what? I thought about this just even in praying about this passage. I thought, maybe a part of me needs to say to the faculty, you need to be just as candid as the Apostle Paul about how wretched things can be out there in the world.

But I’m so thankful for the colleagues I have as the faculty of this institution because they are set out in such a way that their mission is to teach, to teach the whole council of God, to teach those who will teach and preach the word of God. Paul says to Timothy, well, for one thing, you have “my teaching.” Second, he says, “my conduct.” It is interesting how the apostle Paul, and remember he was an apostle. The apostle Paul wrote to people saying, emulate my conduct. I am living according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the minister of the gospel needs to be an example in conduct, not only Paul an example to Timothy, but Timothy, as he says explicitly, an example to others.

Every once in a while, I hear someone and the formula they use, I recognize. When I hear him preach, he sounds like X. When I hear him preach, he reminds me of yet another pastor. I have to tell you, that’s as natural as it comes. It’s as natural as it comes. We sound like what we hear. We sound like what we’ve heard. We sound like what we have heard in order for us to know what we are supposed to sound like. Now, eventually over time, every preacher finds his voice, but it is interesting. The apostle Paul here, he holds himself up as an example. Sometimes it comes out even in the way we hear people, you have seen my conduct. Third, “my aim in life.” This is a little more complex. It’s fascinating. And this third thing, the apostle Paul says, “I have before me the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the grace and for the glory of Christ I minister. I am running a race for the goal that is set before me.” It’s just beautiful language. You know my aim in life? My aim in life is not earthly riches. My aim in life is not earthly glory. My aim in life is not to manipulate people. My aim in life is not to spend myself in some ridiculous religious movement. No, my aim in life is to please God and to be a preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to build up the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and to edify the saints. And so at the end of this letter, let’s just remind ourselves he’s going to write to Timothy about having finished his race and running his course. He’s done this. You know my aim in life.

Number four, “my faith.” Paul’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His beautiful language, he knows in who he’s believed. He’s absolutely confident that he’s able to do all that he’s promised. The Apostle Paul becomes the great definer of the gospel in so many ways. When we tell people what the gospel is in so many ways, we’re using words the Holy Spirit gave to the Apostle Paul. We understand his faith. It’s laid out for all of us to see and it’s laid out in the history of his life and then even the circumstances of his death. He’s faithful all the way to the end of the race, even unto death.

Number five, “my patience.” This is one I struggle with. I’ll admit I struggle with this in a big way. I will tell you, I think I have a bigger temptation towards impatience on unimportant things. And sometimes for some reason I have more patience about very important things. I think that’s a part of the character problem of patience. We do know the big things take time. It’s hard to keep that in mind sometimes. I think especially when young, I think I was on some of the big things. I was impatient to see things. But I will tell you, the Lord gives you in ministry over a period of years, the satisfaction and the joy of seeing things happen, not on your timetable, but on God’s. Patience, “my patience,” his patience of working with people. I mean, for crying out loud, given all the things the Apostle Paul has piled up about his concerns about the churches, I quit would be the third letter, but that’s not true. He’s patient.

Sixth “his love.” And of course, this is the love that the Apostle Paul writes about in a different context at Third Avenue Baptist Church. I’m preaching verse by verse, teaching verse by verse through 2 Corinthians. And you look at the Apostle Paul and he has to say such hard things, but it’s very clear he’s saying these hard things because he loves the church. This is a love, first of all, love of God, love of Christ, love of the gospel. But he means here, I think his love for fellow Christians, his love for the church. He’s poured his life out for the church.

Seventh, “his steadfastness.” This is a good word and it’s an old English word which shows up here and it’s in the King James tradition, the Tyndale tradition. It’s in most modern translations, something like this. We don’t use this word in everyday language, but there’s almost no other way to translate it. And it just means standing there and refusing to be moved. Steadfastness is staying at the task. It’s staying at the job. It’s staying at the station. It’s staying at the post. Steadfastness means I’m not going to be moved. And this is really important for us to know, steadfastness is one of the things the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, “You are to emulate in me as you follow my example, follow my steadfastness.” Again, it shows up. I think of the Corinthian correspondence and you think of 2 Corinthians and you look at that and you think, why didn’t you just get up on these people? Why are you putting yourself through this, Paul? And it’s because of his steadfastness in ministry. It is because of the faithfulness to which he has committed himself and it is because of his love. All these things in this list, he loves that church.

Eighth, however, “my persecutions” and ninth, “my sufferings.” And of course, the Apostle Paul was in prison. He’s likely headed soon to his death. When he writes about my persecutions and my sufferings, it’s no small thing. No small thing at all. The Apostle Paul understands this is a contrast. He’s telling Timothy the truth. He’s laid out encyclopedically and in an incredible ratcheted list, all the evil that’s going to show up in these days, all the evil that will show up and even have to be confronted by a minister of the gospel.

But then he says, “You however,” and then in verse 14, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed.” And this is what’s so sweet. So the passage about scripture sneaks upon us. Notice how he introduces it. “But as for you,” this is such a significant shift. Everything now changes. That is true. All that is true. Not only is it true, it’s the unvarnished truth. I’m even using strong words to describe how bad the challenge can be. I’m also reminding you in a piling up of words, you follow my example and just in case you missed anything, I’m going to put it in a list. But then as he closes this particular part of the argument, it’s so sweet beginning in verse 14, “But as for you,” here’s the contrast. “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” Okay, so this is something. So the apostle Paul has held himself up. You have observed me, you have watched me, I have taught you. But I want us to note something, and this is also true for ministers of the gospel. And I just want to say, as you consider your calling and those who are called to preach the ministry of the gospel, you have been taught. And the apostle Paul makes clear it didn’t begin with Paul. Notice what he says. It’s so sweet knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ, Jesus. His mother and grandmother, faithfully teaching him the scriptures from the time he was knee high to a grasshopper. The apostle Paul says, remember that. When you don’t remember anything else, remember what you’ve been taught and from whom you have learned these things. In heaven, we’re going to meet a lot of Eunices and Loises, a lot of mothers and grandmothers who are the direct connection, the direct human conduit for how the Bible got into a child’s heart, how the stories of scripture began to shape a child’s heart and soul and how the apostle Paul wants to say to Timothy, even a call to gospel ministry was planted when you had no idea it was being planted. The apostle Paul says, you have watched me. But here he goes back far beyond himself. He goes back to before he ever met Timothy to when Timothy was learning from his mother and his grandmother.

“You know,” you know, he says, who made you acquainted with the sacred writings, the scriptures, “which are alone able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” And then the statement about scripture, this is what sneaks up on us. “All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” If I had to point people to one verse concerning scripture, this is the verse to which I would point them. When you’re asked, why do you believe in the divine inspiration, the Holy Spirit inspiration of the scriptures, it is because that is exactly what is described here right down to it being breathed out by God.

And because it has been breathed out by God, its attributes are also clear. “It’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.” He takes the apostle Paul, excuse me, the apostle Paul takes Timothy and he shows them that the evil he’s going to confront, the great challenges he’s going to confront. He’s very honest about the evils of the age and the evils that are yet to come. And then he writes to Timothy saying, You have observed me. But then he presses back and says, you have observed others as well. You have learned from me, but you have learned from others as well. And where did we learn? We learned from the holy scriptures. And it is this honoring of those who came before even the apostle Paul to make Timothy acquainted. That’s even the term, acquainted with the sacred writings with the scriptures.

And then this climactic statement about scripture. How much is scripture? “All scripture.” All scripture is breathed out by God. It’s profitable for teaching. What else are you going to teach? Good luck with that. I don’t even mean that. Bad luck with that, but don’t do it. It doesn’t work. There is only one word that can be preached that’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction. Those two certainly must make some reference back to how in the world Timothy’s going to confront those who in the last day are going to show up in such theological and spiritual rebellion. He’s going to have to do a lot of reproving. He’s going to have to do a lot of even correcting, but also for the saints training and righteousness. Then the apostle Paul speaks to Timothy so directly “that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.”

In this passage, we see the apostolic warning in verses one through nine. I think we see an apostolic example in verses 10 through 12. We see an apostolic testimony in verses 10 through 13. And then we see the apostolic authority in verses 14 through 17. At the end of the day, the apostle Paul, having been so bold as an apostle to say to Timothy, you have observed me. And I’m even going to suggest with a piled up list of things which you have learned from me. But when you stand in the pulpit, you don’t preach me. You preach the word in season and out of season and you stay at it. You stay at it with tenacity. You stay at it with courage. You stay at it with conviction. You stay at it indefatigably. You stay at it until the end. And when the apostle Paul at this point in this letter with his life coming to an end, when he says you do this to the end, brothers, he means you do this to the end.

We do this to the end!

I love this verse on scripture, but as I thought about being here with you and this opportunity in chapel, it struck me, as I was looking at this passage for I don’t know how many times, this testimony about scripture sneaks up on us at the end of an argument where the apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and Timothy may not have seen this coming. All right? Maybe if we’re honest, we didn’t see this coming, but here it is. We’re given the word of God to preach and to teach. We have no other word. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy about the calling that has been invested in him and he makes very clear, Timothy, you’re to be serious about this. As serious as a soldier, as serious as an athlete, as serious as a farmer, you are to be diligent in this. You’re to be patient in this. You’re to follow my example. You are to know how evil the opposition may be. You need to know Satan is going to do as much trouble in the church as he can do. You need to know all these things are going to happen. So to a certain extent, you however, remember me in my example for you, but ultimately remember what you have been taught from the holy scriptures and remember that you have been given the word of God. And as he will make clear in the passage that follows, your task is to preach the word of God in season and out of season until you, like me, one day die. That’s all.

Let’s pray.

Father, we are so thankful for all you’ve given us in your word. Father, thank you for this testimony to your word, in your word. Thank you for the apostle’s exhortation to Timothy. Father, thank you for speaking to our hearts. And Father, to those who are here, following the call of God to preach, may you open their eyes and their hearts to know exactly what you would have them to do for a lifetime of faithfulness and ministry. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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