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A privilege for me to be here with you all for these few days, and uh, I certainly have enjoyed the ministry and the fellowship that uh, has been afforded me this, these last couple of days, and we thank, thank Steve for inviting me. But we go home today. At least most of us go home today. But we will go home, and we will face all the situations that we left behind when we came.
What a mountaintop experience to be together with brethren of like mind, to enjoy the fellowship and the camaraderie, the oneness, the unity. I'm sure each one of us would wish that all of our assemblies was just like this. Unfortunately, as we heard yesterday, Satan knows his time is short, and he is very busy. Then we will all go home, and just as the mount is, is the, um, disciples enjoyed the mountaintop experience in the Mount of Transfiguration after they woke up. But it was interesting that as soon as they got to the down to the valley, they, they met with satanic power that they could not do anything about.
And they discovered there was only one who could really do the work, and that was the one that they met on the mountaintop in all of his glory. He was just as powerful in the valley as he was on the mountaintop, and we must understand that. And if we will go in that strength, and in that joy, and in that confidence, he will be able to handle whatever we face when we get to the valley. One of the things that we will face when we get to the valley is what we're going to talk about a little bit this morning.
Second Timothy in chapter three. Second Timothy in chapter three, and I'd like to begin reading at verse ten. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience. That's the kind of a man Paul was, and it was completely evident in his life.
Timothy, as he was writing to him, fully knew, had come to a full understanding of who this man really was, what made him tick. The kind of life he lived, the doctrine that was the basis, the foundation of that life, and the character to a traits that he manifested of faith, long suffering, charity, and patience. But listen, the the sentence isn't over yet. Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast, thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
The center of that little talk, if you will, that encouragement of Timothy, this little, this little sentence in the middle, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I will never forget, I w- it was probably nineteen seventy or seventy one. We were living in Kansas City, and the Youth for Christ organization in Kansas City brought to Kansas City Brother Andrew.
I don't know if you, you gotta, you gotta stretch back a little bit, and he did a lot of carrying of Bibles and et cetera behind the Iron Curtain back in the fifties, sixties, seventies. He spent quite a bit of time in jail. And he was speaking, and so I went, I went along to hear Brother Andrew. And I don't remember much of what he said, except one thing. He had just gotten out of jail. He got across back into Germany, West, West Germany. He was staying with a brother, and they were talking about the situation of the church in West Germany.
And his brother said, you know, we have freedom here. We preach the gospel, and, you know, we really, we really don't suffer persecution here. To which Brother Andrew replied, brother, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. What do you do with that verse, brother? I have no idea what else Brother Andrew said that night, but that sentence, those three or four sentences grabbed me and stuck with me. You see, it isn't all believers who will suffer.
It doesn't say all believers will suffer persecution. It says all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There are many believers, and maybe I'm one of them, who the devil doesn't have to worry about, because I'm not living a godly life. What does it mean to live a godly life? Mr. Vine def- defines the word godly as that which denotes that piety, that's an old English word.
Well, have Brother Mike explain that one to us. Uh, denotes that piety which demonstrates a Godward attitude and which is pleasing to God. A number of years ago, late seventies maybe, there was a man by the name of Jerry Bridges. He was involved in the Navigators organization. He wrote a book called The Pursuit of Godliness. And he defined godliness like this: a devotion to God that results in a life that is pleasing to God.
Now, I thought that was a very good definition because it, it said something. It isn't just a life that is pleasing to God, but it is devotion to God that results in a life that is pleasing to God. So bringing some of those ideas together, my own definition, if you will, would be this: godliness is a manifestation of the character of God that results from a heart that is focused on Him. This is more than just Christian character. It is Christian character stemming from a proper motivation, that motivation being love to God.
To be godly is to be a man who is absolutely devoted to God, who loves God with all of his heart and his soul and his mind and his strength. And as a result of that devotion to God, his life emanates the character of God. Now that kind of life will bring persecution. It's interesting, the word persecution comes from the idea, etymologically, is to flee, which I thought was sort of interesting. And it's the idea of fleeing or being pursued or follow after, followed after, and and and in the context, of course, of this, it would be with an evil intent.
See, in our day, in our day, maybe it's the idea of being hounded or harassed because of who you are and what you stand for. It doesn't come from our, what we do is wrong. I mean, Peter would tell us, don't, don't suffer for that which you do wrong. It isn't an illness. It is the idea of standing for God because you love God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and that is not a popular stand. This is seen in the life of Paul in two ways in, in the second Timothy.
First of all, he, he addresses this from without. He had persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. Now, there was more places than that that Paul suffered persecution, but these were the three places that Timothy himself would have been aware of and would have been involved in, in some, in some outside sense. Let's go back to the book of Acts just briefly. We're not going to spend a lot, a lot of time here, but just to, to show you why he did those, did those three things. Now, in the book of Acts, verse 13, chapter thirteen, verse fourteen, this is just after John Mark departed and went back to Jerusalem.
But when in verse fourteen it says, but when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch and Pisidia and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and, beckoning with his hand, said, men of Israel and ye that fear God, give audience. And the next number of verses is this tremendous gospel message that he gave to these, these believe- these Jewish folks in the, in the synagogue that showed them that Jesus the Christ was spoken of in their Old Testament scriptures, and if they had known the Old Testament scriptures, they would have known that Jesus Christ was here.
And he, he there's a tremendous, tremendous message to, to read, which is in our, um, which is in our point this morning. But he ends that message in verse thirty eight with this application, good preachers end with an application. Isn't it what, what, so what, said Mike at the beginning of our session. And here's the so what. Be it known unto you, verse thirty eight, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that which is that, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, all the Jews left, but there were some Gentiles who hung around, because they wanted to talk to this preacher. And he, they said, we want you to come back next Sabbath day and preach these words again. And so when the congregations were broken up, many of the Jews and the religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Wow. Revival in the city of Antioch.
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you, but seeing you have put, put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And as a result of that, he got escorted out of town. That was the end of that. You see, when we stand for the word of God, when we preach the gospel fearlessly, there are going to be those who believe.
There are going to be those who oppose, and I find it fascinating that the ones who will oppose the gospel most frequently in the book of Acts are those who should have known what Paul was talking about. It was the Jewish people themselves. It was the religious people of his day. You know, the hardest people to reach in America today is the religious crowd. They're satisfied with their religion, and when you come and preach the gospel fearlessly and clearly, they will not like it. And what is happening in America today is there's way too many preachers that are soft-pedaling the gospel in order to gather a crowd.
Paul never soft-pedaled the gospel, and as a result of that, he suffered persecution. Next town, Iconium. They went into the synagogue, and they spoke to a great multitude, both of Jews and, and also Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, made their minds evil affected against their brethren. And before they were, by the time we get down to verse six, they were aware of it and fled into Lystra and Derbe, cities of La- Lycaonia, and into the region that lieth round about, and there they preached the gospel. When they got to Lystra, there's a different story.
That was fascinating, because there they find a lame man, and and uh, God gives him the power to heal this lame man, and all of a sudden they were saying, oh, these are the gods come down. And they were, they were, they were gonna, they were going to honor them and all of these kinds of things. Wow. And Paul made sure that they knew they were not the focal point. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that is the focal point. It is God that they were trying to, uh, to preach to them. And by the time we get down to verse twenty, how be it as the disciple, wait, excuse me, I left, I went too far. Um, in verse eighteen, and with these sayings, scarce restrained they the people that they had done sacrifice unto them. There's verse eighteen and verse nineteen.
and there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, and who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Here was a crowd who in one minute was ready to make them gods, and the next minute they went and stoned them and drug him out of the city and left him for dead. It's too easy to be caught in popularity. And Paul was the same because he knew the fickleness of the crowd. Crowds are fickle.
They want to crown you one day and then crown you the next. And Paul wanted to remind Timothy that when he would go about preaching the gospel, if he would be true to the gospel, there would be varying results. There would be those who believed. Praise the Lord for every one in those towns that believe, because in every one of those towns there was a local church formed. And Paul and Barnabas were later going back to that town, encouraging and confirming those towns and con- encouraging and confirming the disciples, appointing elders in the various local churches that had been formed.
And Timothy was one of those young men who heard Paul and got saved. See, Timothy knew precisely what was going on in these towns. He was one of those who had heard Paul and gotten saved, and when Paul came back the second time around, uh, the, the, the brethren commended Paul, or excuse me, commended Timothy to go with Paul, and Timothy became Paul's m- most ardent disciple, if you will, and, and uh, confident disciple during, during Paul's days. The watered down, the non-watered down gospel still stirs up the religious community, and we still need to preach it fearlessly and with conviction.
It is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Let us not, and I say it, I've said it before this weekend, and I want to say it again, and it's a burden on my heart. We need to get back to the gospel, the clear gospel, the simple gospel, the straightforward gospel, and we need to preach it with conviction and passion. There will be those who believe, there will be those who will choose not to believe, and they will be the ones who will stir up the crowds against you.
Some of you, maybe more than I know, I'm not sure how well he's known in this particular area of the world. As a young man, I, I say young man, he's probably not, I probably shouldn't say that anymore about him, but his name is John Beorley. And John Beorley is a fearless gospel preacher who chooses in the fall and in the spring to go to college campuses and, uh, preach the gospel in the open air. And he was recently at Grand Valley State University, which is just about twenty miles away from where I live, and he was there with a couple of other brothers, and he was preaching the gospel.
And one of the young ladies in our assembly was going there to school, and she happened to be walking by, and she heard, she, she heard this voice, you know. And John has one of these voices in the open air where you can hear him about six blocks away, and uh, the Lord gifts gospel, outdoor gospel preachers with those kinds of voices. He never gifted me with that kind of a voice. I need one of these things in front of me. But he said, she said, I sat and listened to him, and people were heckling him, and people were, were really being rude to him, and she was v- very, she's known John, and she says, you know, she was, she wanted to go up and defend him. I said, hey, you don't have to defend John. You don't have to worry about John.
He, he loves it. But he's still out there. He's still preaching, and he's clear with the gospel, and he can, he, he, he goes straight at you. And he has seen souls saved, and the Lord has given him a wonderful ministry in that, and he's encouraged many young men over the years in the gospel. We need to get back to the solid, clear preaching of the gospel. But that isn't all it was. We're reading in the book of second uh Timothy. I want you to take a little scan with me through the book of second Timothy.
I want to read in chapter one verse thirteen. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Vagelos and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well. Notice that little verse fifteen. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. Who is a man who administered his life in this area. And now he is an older man. I don't think he's as old as we might think he was. I'm not terribly sure Paul had reached seventy years old at this point yet.
But suddenly he had found himself alone. Those folks in whom he had poured his life had turned away from him. He was too straight. He was too forward. He was too aggressive. To a- associate with Paul could get yourself in trouble. You could get thrown in jail if you associated with him. I mean, look at, look at where he was at. And they said, no.
No thanks. I don't want to be associated with him. Go to chapter two. He says, in verse fifteen, Let's go to read verse fourteen. Of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain bad things, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as if a canker, of whom is Hymianus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.
Chapter three, Verse five, breaking into the middle of the sentence because I just want to grab this last, this last one. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, as jannes and jambris withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning their faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their Father shall be manifest unto all, as theirs also was.
Chapter four, verse ten. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed it unto Thessalonica. Christians to Galatians, Titus into Dal- Dalmatia. Read verse fourteen. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works, of whom be thou aware because he hath greatly withstood our words.
At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that I may not be laid to their charge. Nonetheless, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. In these four chapters, we have at least two men in each of the four chapters that are mentioned by name. And we have a progression in these four chapters. A progression of desertion. And by the end of chapter four, he is standing alone.
No man stood with me. To live a godly life may sometimes, will actually, let's go back to the reality, will even alienate believers. It is a lonely path to follow the Lord. It is a lonely path to love him so much that you are unwilling to deviate, that you are willing to stand alone for God.
But God will never desert you. I, I am convinced in my mind that I am talking to men who feel very lonely in their local assemblies, who feel like, is there anyone in my assembly, is there anyone here that is willing to go forward with God? Am I the only one? I understand. I had a brother give me a verse of from Kings nineteen yesterday. I have 7,000 have not do- bowed to me, and I understand that.
But they just don't happen to be near me, that's all. And don't we, when we live godly in Christ Jesus, we are going to get that. But listen, we have desertion, turning away in, in chapter one. We have error, deviation from truth in chapter two. We have resisting the truth in chapter three. And in chapter four, we have those who will walk away from us and will do us harm at the very time that we need fellowship.
What a sad commentary. This is Paul in his day, and it hasn't changed. But what was, what did Paul say to Timothy? In chapter one? let's go back to chapter one. mhm He says to Timothy in chapter one and verse thirteen, hold fast. Can I use the word pattern here? That's the idea of form. Hold fast the pattern of sound words. In spite of whether people will associate with you or not, we need to hold fast.
One of our brethren was talking about holding fast. Holding fast the pattern of sound words. Sound words are healthy words. Sound words are scriptural words. Sound words are that which will bring health and vitality. There are words that are unsound. There are words that, that aren't clear. There are words that will, will destroy. We can, with our words, abuse, we heard yesterday. But there are words which are healthy words, words that will build up, words that will encourage, words that are sound, words that have a pattern of soundness to them and will bring health to those around about us.
And we need to be those who will speak healthy, sound words that are seen in the scriptures and will communicate the scriptures in a way that will bring encouragement and upbuilding to the saints around about us. In spite of who won't associate with us, in spite of those who might turn away from us, we need, in spite of that, to continue on with healthy words. I want to encourage you, brethren, this morning to stay with sound, healthy words, words that build up, words that encourage, words that, that, that are, that are healthy.
Yes, there will be those who will turn away from you. But we need to stay with the truth. Secondly, there will be those who will deviate from the truth, and in deviating from the truth, will take others along with them. I don't think we, we have to even talk about that, do we? We've all been, we've, we've all seen that in assemblies, if not ours, assemblies around about us, where, where something comes in, a wrong doctrine, an error in some way comes in and is being taught and being promoted, and suddenly it isn't just that person, but it's, it's the people that leave with him.
And that does the testimony of God harm. It happens. It happened in Paul's day. It happens in our day. What do we need to do? Study. Be diligent. To show yourself approved unto God. Because we must understand, it is before God that I will give account. We must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ. May we be diligent to be men who are approved.
I like that, I like that, I looked up that word some time ago, and it's the word dokimos or something of that nature. Anybody that knows Greek, I hope that isn't too bad a slaughtering of the Greek language. But it had to do with, with an approval, and what, what it comes out of is in the, in this day, in the Roman world, there was coin makers, and you didn't have a mint, you didn't have a government mint. People made coins, and they were silver or gold or whatever. And it was very easy for them to shave off a little bit around the edge, so it wasn't full weight. But there were those coin makers who didn't shave off the edge, who gave full weight, and they were, those coins were approved.
They were full measure. They were dokumos. We need to study the scriptures, not shaving the corners. Not, not cutting around, but cutting straight through. I think that is a diversion. I think that is a very clear, uh, encouragement to each of us for a consistent, literal interpretation of the scriptures. The rising flood, a rising flood of theology around us is to take an allegorical approach to the scripture.
I know I'm living in the heart of it in my part of the world, but, but it is a rising flood. Uh, Reformed theology is, is the large theology in the church today. And those of us who will take a literal, a consistent literal approach to the scriptures from Genesis one to Revelation twenty two, we're looked down on our noses, and yet it is only a clear, consistent, literal interpretation of the book that makes the unity of this book shine. God's promises to Israel will come true. Don't bank, bank on it. You can go to the bank on that one.
And God's promises to the church will come true as well. And if he will rise, and if Israel will rise, and he will reign over them in all of his promises to them, we will be presented as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, and you can go to the bank on that because God said it, and we can take it literally from Genesis chapter one to Revelation chapter twenty two. And when you do that, I had a, I had a nephew that got tied up in that. I will never forget this. The place where he was going, unfortunately it was an assembly, but the, one of the elders was going through the book of Daniel, and he was strictly a reformed theologian. And my nephew, wisely, was unable to figure out what this guy was trying to say.
So I, I kept needling him with checking the scriptures and, and asking him what, what passages were being left out and how passage was being held, and how was he going to put Matthew twenty four into that, and how was he going to put, you know, these kinds of things. I will never forget his phone call one, one morning. He can't he, Uncle Jim. Yeah? Do you know what? No, what? This book fits together. I said, yeah. How so? He says, but I got to throw away Reformed theology to do it.
I said, did you? I said, yes, I am throwing it away. And I tell you what, in the next six weeks, he must have called me three times a week. Uncle Jim, would you look at this passage? Would you look at this passage? Would you look at this passage? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he is so excited, it took him six weeks to come down off of cloud nine. um And the Lord is just being u- is using him, and he's going forward for God. A consistent, literal interpretation of the scriptures, rightly dividing the word of truth. Be diligent, be approved. That is the only way you and I can combat the error in the church.
Chapter three. Not only are they doing error, but now they're resisting the truth. He doesn't mention who they were in chapter three. He uses Genesis Jambres, which of course is Moses, but the reality is that these people are creeping into houses, leading away silly women. My guess is whatever they were doing in those houses, leading these silly women away, glad it's all men in the audience, were appealing to the senses, to the feelings, not really teaching the truth, and we're led, led away with silly things.
You know, one of the things that has come up in the last twenty five to thirty years is the inductive Bible study, and you get together and everybody shares their ignorance. What does the book say to me? Now, it doesn't matter what it says to me. What does the book say, period? And in that way, they're ever learning, never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, because they're not looking for truth, they're looking for something that makes them feel good, and that is rampant in the church today. Resisting the truth. What is the an- antidote?
Verse fourteen: Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. We need to teach our children the Holy Scriptures. The greatest thing we can do in Sunday school is... memorization. Get the scriptures into your children, the Holy Spirit will do the rest. Don't do the work of the Holy Scriptures.
Don't do the work of the Holy Spirit. You make sure the Holy Scriptures are, are instilled in them, and let, and watch the Holy Spirit use it. In chapter four, we have men who, for whatever reason, we have this one man, Demas, who has forsaken him, having loved this present world. The love of the world. The love of the present. It isn't that he was doing any- I- I don't think he necessarily was doing anything wrong.
Maybe he wasn't. Just getting involved in, in this world. And as a result, he- he left Paul. I don't know what Alexander the Coppersmith said. But he had greatly withstood Paul's words. So what do you do in the face of that? Well, read verse two. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season, approve, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.
I'm not sure which, which, I think maybe both the preacher and the hearer wanted, had the itching ears, but anyway, when they shall turn away their ears from the truth and to be turned unto the fables. But watch thou in all things that endure the afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. Brethren, we are going to go home to people who will not associate us with us because of our stand. We will go home, and we will hear truth that has been strayed from. We will go home, and we will know people who will resist the truth of God.
We will go home, and we will find people who will forsake us simply because they love the world instead. But what we need to do is stay faithful to God in spite of the departure, in spite of what's going on around us, continue on, go on, because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Let's pray. Our Father, those things which were true in Paul's day, from the world outside as he preached the gospel, from the believers inside as he encouraged them to go on for God.
There were those who did not believe. There were those who resisted his word. And our Father, the days as Paul has warned us, that evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceived and being deceived. And our Father, we live in a day when we know there's a great deal of departure. There's opposition rising in the world to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, Father, we know that there is departure in the church.
But our Father, we would pray that we would use this encouragement from Paul in spite of what's going on around us, what's in spite of what's going on in the church. Our Father, we would pray that you would keep us faithful to yourself, that we would continue in those things that we have learned, that we would preach the word. And our Father, if all forsake us, we know that you will not. May we be encouraged with your presence. May we be encouraged with the reality that you will not forsake us.
May we be encouraged by the fact that there are men that we can be in contact with, as Paul was in contact with Timothy, whom he had complete confidence in. It was an encouragement to brother Paul. And may we do as Timothy did, encourage those men who are staying faithful to the word. My father, we, we pray that as we go home this week and face the difficulties, the problems of our, of our home assemblies, that you would keep us, encourage us. We thank you for this time together, that we can come together to be encouraged, to communicate and fellowship with each other, to listen to ministry that has encouraged our hearts and challenged our hearts.
Father, may we go away from this conference with a renewed desire to follow you, to be faithful to you in all things. We would ask this in our Savior's name. Amen.