One thing that makes exams a lot easier is studying. Now, I don’t know, there’s lots of different methods of studying. For me, what works best is repetition.

(0:11 – 0:31)

Simply just read it over and over again or have someone else go over everything with you. Paul seems to agree with me that that’s an excellent method of study. In the passage today, we’re going to see that most of what he’s saying, he’s actually already said earlier in the book.

(0:33 – 0:51)

But when Paul tends to repeat things, he repeats them because they’re important. So I’m going to start by reading the passage. If you could return in your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 8. It’s page 1197 in the chapel Bibles.

(0:54 – 1:21)

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

(1:22 – 1:38)

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.

(1:39 – 2:01)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. So, as I said, most of this has already been looked at earlier in Timothy.

(2:02 – 2:25)

But he’s bringing out a few things for Timothy. And obviously this book is written to Timothy, who was a church leader, and much of it is primarily applicable to the church leaders, to the elders, the pastors. But it’s something that we all need to be aware of as well, both because at any point in our lives, we may be teaching someone else scriptures.

(2:25 – 2:46)

And also, to hold our elders accountable. So, we’re going to start in with Paul giving Timothy an instruction. Now he starts off in that verse by saying, with God and Jesus as my witness.

(2:47 – 2:59)

So, this is a very legalistic term. It gives the impression, this isn’t just Paul telling Timothy something offhand. He’s saying, God is watching me as I tell you this.

(2:59 – 3:17)

If you don’t follow through with it, he’s been witness that I’ve told you. And what does he say? Preach the word. This is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing for an elder and a pastor to do.

(3:17 – 3:23)

Preach the word. And we’re going to see why a little bit later. He says, be prepared at all times.

(3:24 – 3:39)

Now, as I just said, this is primarily written to elders. But the being prepared at all times, we can see from Romans, is applicable to everyone. Sorry, not from Romans, from Peter.

(3:39 – 3:56)

1 Peter 3.15 says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. So all of us are encouraged to be prepared to share the gospel. It’s something that is an instruction given to all of us.

(3:59 – 4:20)

He also says, correct, rebuke, and encourage. In the previous passage, we are told, as Rory was preaching a couple weeks ago, that the thing to use for this is Scripture. For all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

(4:21 – 4:44)

So he’s not just telling Timothy what to do, but he’s also already given the instructions of how to do it. And then he adds, with great patience and careful instruction. Now, why would he add that, with great patience and careful instruction? Now, I’ve been to many churches in my life.

(4:45 – 5:12)

My parents were missionaries, so I was visiting churches all the time. And something that I witnessed in a few of them was the leaders always being ready to move on to the next thing. It’s, what is the current big thing that I can talk about? But Paul is telling Timothy, take a step back, be patient in the way you teach it.

(5:12 – 5:38)

Make sure you have firm foundations. Make sure the people you’re teaching understand the basics of the gospel. Now, why would he want Timothy to be so certain and so careful to teach the basics and to take his time and be patient in this? This comes right before he’s giving Timothy a warning.

(5:41 – 6:00)

He tells Timothy that a time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. And I find it interesting in this passage that quite often we’re told that wolves are going to come into the church, that false preachers will appear. But in this passage, it’s not even necessarily talking about those.

(6:01 – 6:21)

It says that people will gather teachers to themselves to hear what they want to hear. So the congregation itself, members of the congregation, they’re not just being led astray by false teachers, but they are actively potentially seeking them out. They are looking for something that makes them feel a little bit more comfortable.

(6:21 – 6:37)

A little bit more, less convicted. Now, it’s very easy to find these sorts of things. It’s very easy to hear messages.

(6:37 – 7:19)

If you’re looking for them, there are messages everywhere. And many of them start with the original nice message. Did God really say, as the serpent said to Eve before the fall? So today that might look like, did God really say that it’s wrong to live with someone before you’re married to them? Did God really say that marriage is only between a man and a woman? Did God really say male and female? These are all issues that we see rampant in our society.

(7:20 – 8:10)

Douglas mentioned a few weeks ago about a video that I’d actually seen as well of a preacher, a female preacher, who was talking about a passage that she thought that the way Jesus had treated the woman who’d come to him about even the dogs get the scraps, she was blinded by her feminist views that, well, I know better than God, so is that really what the Bible teaches? And we see this everywhere. Many places, it’s the prosperity gospel. People listening to preachers say, well, if you give us the church lots of money, then God’s going to bless you financially.

(8:11 – 8:41)

And if you’re from a very poverty-stricken area, that sounds great, but it’s not what the Bible teaches. So you have all these dangers of people who are seeking out messages that they want to hear. Perhaps the biggest one of those is, do I really need to change in order to follow Jesus? And most of those other ones fall under that.

(8:45 – 9:15)

Now, this is something that we should all look for in the preaching that we are given. If you sit in your church week after week and you never feel convicted or uncomfortable listening to the preaching, it could be a sign that something is wrong, either with the preaching or with you. It could be that you’re not listening to the preaching, but it could also be that the preacher is just giving you nice messages, things that you want to hear, things that are comfortable.

(9:18 – 9:40)

Now, this is nothing new. These, as I said, one of the first things that the devil said to Eve in the garden was, did God really say? But also in Paul’s time, we read in Romans, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin.

(9:40 – 10:00)

How can we live in it any longer? So there were people who were going around the churches saying, well, if God saved us by his grace, then we don’t really need to change the way we live. So these aren’t new. They’re just dressed up a little differently to suit the modern audience.

(10:04 – 10:35)

So if this is something that Timothy’s told to watch out for, how is he supposed to respond? We see in verse five, but you keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. He’s saying, don’t let this prevent you from doing God’s work, because the way to counter these falsehoods is to preach the truth. He says, be diligent in your work.

(10:36 – 11:08)

So for our elders, for Colin, it’s be diligent in your work as the elder, as the leader, the pastor. This is a vital duty of church leadership, diligence in preaching the word, because the best way to combat falsehood is with the truth. Now, Paul hasn’t just told Timothy what to do and how to do it, but he’s also given an example of how it can be done.

(11:10 – 11:27)

In verse six, he starts talking about himself. And in the previous passage where Rory’s teaching, he also said, told Timothy, you know all about my teaching. Timothy had spent time with Paul, and Paul is pointing to himself as an example.

(11:28 – 11:43)

So he says he is poured out as a drink offering. Now, I did some looking into the drink offering. The drink offering is often paired with other offerings.

(11:43 – 12:19)

Quite often, grain offerings, which reminded me a little bit of the bread and the wine. So you would, often you would offer your bull or your sheep as a sacrifice, but along with that, there would be a small grain offering, which was usually ground flour, and then they’d pour out a wine offering, which that reminds me of what we’re gonna be celebrating later in communion. The blood of Christ poured out and his body broken.

(12:20 – 12:37)

Now, Paul is using the drink offering intentionally. He is reminding people, even in his, he is telling Timothy, I am going to be killed for my faith. But in that, he’s not talking about himself.

(12:37 – 13:09)

He’s pointing to Christ and reminding Timothy of the sacrifice that has already been paid. Also, as I said, drink offerings were often paired with another offering. So if Paul dying for Christ is the drink offering, what is the grain offering in this situation? He says, I have fought the good fight.

(13:09 – 13:14)

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Paul isn’t just dying for Christ.

(13:15 – 13:34)

He’s dying for Christ at the end of a life that he lived for Christ. So the being poured out as a drink offering is the final sacrifice he’s making after a life lived in service to God. He is able to tell Timothy to follow my example.

(13:35 – 13:50)

I have spent my, not whole life, because obviously before he was Paul, he was Saul. But ever since his encounter with Jesus, he has dedicated his life to God and suffered immensely for it. He was beaten.

(13:50 – 14:03)

He was imprisoned. And all of that is his life offered to Christ. And to me, that’s actually even more impressive than dying for him.

(14:05 – 14:24)

Dying for Christ is a choice that we can only make once. But living for him is a choice we must make each and every day. But Paul isn’t giving us an instruction that is impossible to follow because he’s given us himself as an example.

(14:28 – 14:54)

So he has run the race and he is telling Timothy all of this in preparation for his death. Now, as Colin told us at the start of the series, he is expecting to see Timothy again. However, I think it quite likely that he is going to repeat everything he has said in this book in person.

(15:00 – 15:19)

Now, in the final verse, it says, there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Now, the word crown used in this passage is not a royal crown, but rather a victor’s crown.

(15:20 – 15:43)

It was the term that was used for the laurel leaves that they would put on the victors in the Olympics, in the original Olympics, in ancient Greece. It was the crown that you’d put on whoever won the race. So we don’t simply have to live for Christ for nothing.

(15:44 – 16:04)

A reward is awaiting us on that day. That day being the coming of Christ and us joining him for all eternity. And an encouragement from that as well is this is not a crown that is limited to Paul.

(16:05 – 16:18)

It is also to all who have longed for his appearing. We are all able to take part in this. We all have our own race to run.

(16:19 – 16:37)

And Paul has written all of this to Timothy in preparation for Timothy’s race. But it’s also been written down for us in our own race. If you are in Christ, then there is a crown of righteousness awaiting you in heaven on that day.

(16:41 – 16:54)

And I also, I like the way he’s written the end of that, of all who long for his appearing. We should be longing for the return of Christ. It is something to look forward to.

(16:54 – 17:06)

It is something beautiful. It is a reward for all of us. And we will have, all of those who are in Christ will have an inheritance on that day.

(17:12 – 17:34)

So with this, there’s in the spirit of Paul, I would like to repeat a few of the key points of the sermon. For the elders and teachers, preach the word. Do it unashamedly and courageously.

(17:36 – 17:50)

And beware false doctrines. Beware that members of your congregation may be deceived by false teachers, but they may also turn aside on their own. And it is your job to correct them.

(17:51 – 18:00)

It’s not a fun job. In fact, it’s probably the hardest part of your job. But correcting false doctrine is your job.

(18:00 – 18:21)

And calling out those turning to it is also up to you. For those in the congregation, for the flock of a church, hold your leaders accountable. Listen to what they preach each week.

(18:22 – 19:07)

Are they preaching the truth? Or are they simply giving you nice messages that they think you want to hear? Also, make sure that you listen to these words because you never know on the days when someone might ask you about your faith, and when you become the preacher, when you become the teacher, because we are all called to share the gospel. And for everyone else, for all of us leaders, teachers, congregation, look forward to his coming with longing in your heart. I’m going to close in prayer.

(19:10 – 19:29)

Dear Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for Paul’s example to us, for a life lived not for himself but for you, and for a life poured out for you. May we give our lives and our hearts equally to you.

(19:29 – 19:43)

May we use him as an example of Christian living. And may we always turn to you and strive to follow after Christ. And may we look with excitement upon his return.

(19:44 – 19:45)

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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