A Good Soldier of Christ: How to destroy a Healthy Church in Two Simple Steps | 2 Timothy 2:14-26

Hello, Professor Thomas here at your First Baptist Church of El Daredo, Europe, joined us today in a series called A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus, which is a study in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Throughout this series, we're going to learn a lot about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus who makes disciples of Jesus.

And so we're going to run this race as we walk through 2 Timothy 2.

And I'm so thankful that you've chosen to join us today, and I hope you are encouraged by God's word.

Open with me now to 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

2 Timothy chapter 2 as we finish a series we've been in for just a few weeks this summer through the second chapter of Timothy.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

And it begins here in verse 14.

I'll read them now.

Remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words which does no good but only ruins the hearers.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

We'll see more this morning, but pray with me now as we open God's word.

Lord Jesus, by your Spirit, would you do what only you can do?

Would you teach us what it means to take your word as authority, to take our personal pursuits towards sanctification seriously, and to live for you so that not just this church, but the church can stand.

And the kingdom of God may expand.

Speak now, Lord, in Christ's name.

Amen.

It's fascinating to think that back in the year 2000, Blockbuster Video, Blockbuster Video had the opportunity to uh purchase for$50 million a company uh that was somewhat new and honestly not that successful.

But Blockbuster Video had the opportunity in 2000 to purchase a company called Netflix for$50 million.

Netflix offered to really handle the online side of Blockbuster and let Blockbuster handle the store side of the operation.

You may know enough about Netflix to know they they kind of learned how to handle the online side of their own business just fine.

But Blockbuster had this opportunity, again,$50 million, and Blockbuster thought it was a waste of time and was a waste of$50 million.

And you look today, Blockbuster is no more, and Netflix is worth over$300 billion.

Now, you and I both would have said, surely, back in that time, there will never be a day when a brick and mortar video rental store is not a necessity.

Surely that is an operation that will never fail.

And yet the operation failed.

We might look at businesses and corporations and institutions and say, that's one that can never fail.

That's one that can never fall.

You may look at a certain business or institution today and say, that one will last forever, and then we're making a joke about it in a sermon 25 years later because it's no more.

It will probably happen.

Anything can fall.

Now, what about the church?

Obviously, as you look at the church, I mean Capital C church, the church cannot fail.

The Lord promises the gates of hell will not overcome it.

But what about the individual church?

What about First Baptist Church of El Doredo?

Are we tempted to say there's a church that can't fall?

It's been around for 180 years.

That's a church that will not, cannot be destroyed, cannot fall.

I want to talk about something this morning, and really the title of the sermon is simple.

It's this How to Destroy a Healthy Church in Two Simple Steps.

How to destroy a healthy church in two simple steps.

Paul gives us these warnings as he's teaching Timothy what to do.

If we take the negative of that, what not to do, we will see how we could destroy any church, even this church, in two simple steps.

And from the start, I want to give those steps to you.

Number one is this treat God's word as a good suggestion, but not the ultimate authority.

Number two is this treat personal holiness as a good option, but not a primary pursuit.

Let's start with number one.

Treat God's word as a good suggestion, but not the ultimate authority.

Verse 14, Paul writing to his disciple Timothy, remind them of these things.

Remind them of these things.

Now, from the start, I'm fascinated by where Paul begins here in verse 14, because just a couple of weeks ago in verse 8, we saw Paul charge Timothy, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, offspring of David.

Basically, we we read that as this uh to him telling Timothy, remember the gospel.

He charges Timothy to remember, and then in verse 14, he charges Timothy to remind them of these things.

Here's a picture of the Christian life.

Here's a picture of our Christian duty.

We are to remember the gospel.

We are called to uh allow the Holy Spirit to fill us up, uh, to allow the Word of God to fill us up, so that why, out of the overflow, we can pour into others the truth of the gospel.

And so we should have this same trajectory as Paul is giving to Timothy.

Uh be reminded of the gospel, and then just a few verses later, now from that remind others.

Make sure others know.

So remind them of these things, and these things is the gospel, the idea of the Christian life.

We saw Paul talk about the farmer, the soldier, the athlete.

Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, not to get in fights over words.

Surely, in no church has ever gotten in a fight over words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

So these arguments, this internal fighting, and we're about to see more of what that looks like here in the church that Paul is writing to, to Timothy at Ephesus, but this fighting does no good.

In fact, it only ruins the people who are involved, like the book of Proverbs talks about over and over, where uh the individual falls into the own trap that he sets.

The person who does the talking is ruined, but not only that, the hearers are ruined.

Think about someone outside the church looking in.

And they see a church.

I'm not just talking about this church, I'm talking about the church.

They see a church that is always about the business of fighting with one another.

They'll be tempted to say, I can get in fights out there.

I can get in fights with someone about politics, I can get in fights with someone at work.

Why do I need to go to church to do that?

It only ruins the hearers, and I believe it only puts a bad taste in the mouth of outsiders.

But 15, and this is where I want to land for a minute.

Do your best.

Try with all your might.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

First of all, this first idea: do your best to present yourself to God.

First of all, for the believer, for Timothy, who are you presenting yourself to?

To God.

We're about to talk about false teachers.

It's interesting about false teachers who spread false gospel.

Who do they present themselves to?

They present themselves to man, to others.

Why?

Because if I'm a false teacher, I need listeners.

If I'm a false teacher, I need people to teach.

I need people that will be interested in what I have to say.

I need followers.

I need people like Paul talks about later who have itching ears that I can tell them exactly what they want to hear, and they will see things my way, and I'll be a false teacher with followers.

I present myself to others, not Timothy, not the believer, not the one grounded in the gospel.

You present yourself to God.

You stand before God as one approved.

Well, what does it mean to be one approved?

A worker who has no need to be ashamed.

And here's this last statement I love who is rightly handling the word of truth.

Who is rightly handling the word of truth.

So again, as we said, not treating the word of truth as just a good suggestion, as something we look at and say, if it if it kind of fits our ideas, we'll follow.

If it sounds good, we'll follow.

If it seems a little tough, we'll kind of put those scriptures to the side and not worry about those as much.

No, no.

This is not just a good suggestion.

What this is instead is our authority.

That's what it means to rightly handle the word of truth.

Literally, that phrase, to rightly handle the word of truth.

If you look uh literally, that that that phrase is to cut straight the word of truth.

Let's talk about that for a second.

To cut straight the word of truth.

It's quite literally a term in the first century that was for the making and laying of roads, that you are cutting straight.

If you've got a road going this way, you don't want to swerve to the right or the left, and if you literally have to cut into the ground or a hillside to make that road straight, you're gonna do it.

If any time since 1999, and I bet most of you have, have driven up to Fayetteville.

You know that right around Alma, uh you hop on 49, or if you've been around the block for a little while, you you may still call it 540.

But you hop on 49 there at Alma and you head north between Alma and Fayetteville, and then right in the middle, as that was being built, there was this mountain right in the middle of things.

Now, I'm sure the engineers and designers had some ideas that maybe we can go way around to the right, way around to the left.

Somebody had an idea, maybe we can go over this thing, and then someone spoke up and said, What if we go through it?

And they built what you've probably driven through many times, the Bobby Hopper tunnel there between Alma and Fayetteville, and instead of going around, they went straight through that mountain.

That's exactly what Paul is describing here.

We are cutting straight the word of God.

That means this, church family, that we look at this word, we see it as authority, and we cut straight, meaning this, that we don't veer to the right or the left, we don't try to get around it, we don't leave it behind, we look at it, we read it, and what it says is our authority.

And if there's a moment when I come to God's word and I have a problem with it, that I disagree with it, that I might be tempted to say, God, are you sure about that one?

The problem is never God's word.

The problem is always me.

And by the way, God's okay with our questions.

We come to Him and say, God, would you reveal this to me?

Show me what this means for my life.

But but when I come to the Word, this is the authority.

This is the truth.

And so we cut straight, meaning this, we look at the Word, we don't veer to the right or left, we believe what the Word says.

We handle it well.

I want to think about something for a second.

The the Blue Angels.

You you maybe you've been to an air show of the Blue Angels.

I haven't seen them in person, but seen many videos based out of Pensacola there, and just the picture of military precision in these uh these fighter pilots, in these uh uh just unbelievable uh airplanes and and and how precise they are and how they they move around one another in these air shows.

It is the most incredible thing that these blue angels do.

But I want to ask this question do you think they wake up in the morning and say, you know, what kind of show do we want to put on today?

They wake up in the morning and they say, you know, I think I'm gonna add a couple extra barrel rolls uh to the show.

That sounds good today.

I'm just feeling a little excited today.

Had my coffee.

No, no, no.

I want you to watch a quick two-minute video, and I'm gonna be honest, it's strange.

It kind of sounds funny.

You'll probably chuckle a little bit.

I just want you to watch a video uh of a pre-show meeting uh with the blue angels who are about to take flight.

Let's watch this video now.

The soul's band from right for the tuck of a roll.

The diamond will be in from behind the crowd for the low break cross.

The soul's band from the right for the section high alpha.

The diamond will be in from in front of the crowd for the burner 270.

Out of the burner 270, we'll run a groove crowd right behind the crowd with airspeed calls, and the delta will be in from behind the crowd for the delta roll.

Rolling the loop break cross.

Do you think this group of men uh know what their instructions are?

Do you think they know what their requirements are?

What they know what they're called to do and supposed to do?

And why do you think they take it that seriously that quite literally, as you just saw, they could run it with their eyes closed?

Why do they take it with that much seriousness?

I'll tell you why.

Because when they're traveling in the air at that speed and with that precision, if you veer left at four and a half seconds instead of four and three-quarter seconds, that's the difference between you going home to your wife and kids and you not going home.

I mean, that's what's at stake.

And that's why they can sit in an office and do the whole routine with their eyes closed with one another to absolute certain perfection.

Do we know this word?

Do we know what is required of us?

Do we know this word uh to the point so well that when false teaching seeks to come among us, we instantly know the truth?

Do we know the word in such a way that as Paul says just a couple chapters later, that in season and out of season we would be ready to do what?

Verse 2 of chapter 4, to preach the word, to proclaim the word.

Do we know the word in such a way that it is so ingrained in us individually and collectively as a church?

Uh we are so foundationally based on the word of God that anything outside of his word would not be welcome because we know the word so well.

Why?

Because what is at stake?

Just like these fighter pilots here, there is everything at stake.

And disaster is waiting for the moment that as a church we begin to compromise what God has given us.

And all you have to do is look around, and it is sad to see that there are some denominations, large denominations in our nation that have compromised in some very serious ways.

And it's it's it pains me to see that so many denominations that God has used so richly for so many years and have so such unbelievable origins.

And really, I believe, Lord willing, would return to the truth of Scripture because they could be so instrumental for the kingdom of God, but they have compromised.

And here's what I fear that I'm not talking about this church, but but any church would just get comfortable with treating this word just as good advice and not as the sovereign authority.

I I think of Martin Luther many 500 years ago at the Diet of Verms, when literally the emperor came down to try to get him to recant of everything he said.

Martin, we need you to recant of this wild idea that you're justified by faith, recant of this wild idea that you should be allowed to read the Bible on your own, recant of this wild idea that you need a mediator, some priest between you and God.

Recant of this wild idea that you don't need to purchase indulgences to secure a better afterlife.

And what did Martin Luther do at the diet of verms in that moment?

He stood up and quite honestly, very humbly, he he just said, uh, I am, I am, uh my conscience is bound to the word of God.

I am captive to the word of God.

And he said, Here I stand, I can do no else.

Again, I'm captive to the word of God.

Where the word of God speaks, that's just what I say.

I can't really do anything else.

And I'll just tell you, in my own life, I want to tell you the blessing that it is to have the word of God and and stand up here each Sunday morning and not have to wonder what I'm gonna say.

What do I mean by that?

I of course I think about what I'm going to say.

How do I illustrate the word well?

How do I communicate the word well?

But the the text I never have to wonder about.

I don't have to come in on a Monday morning and think this what brand new idea am I gonna give the church this week?

What brand new thought that that no thinker has ever thought of in their life?

No, no.

I just come and I open the word of God, and that's what we run with.

And Lord willing, that's what we will always run with.

Because look at verse 16 now.

But avoid irreverent babble.

It will lead people into more and more ungodliness.

Their talk will spread like gangrene, like a like a cancer through the body.

Among them are Himenaeus and Philetus.

They've swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened.

They're upsetting the faith of some.

There's these two individuals preaching that the resurrection has happened, the same kind of thing we talked a few months ago out of 1 Corinthians 15.

They were preaching that there was no future resurrection, which we know there is the future resurrection of the saints.

They're spreading this false teaching, and rightfully so, they're uh upsetting some, but sadly they're upsetting the faith of some.

Verse 19 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal.

The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

This beautiful reference Paul makes out of Numbers chapter 16, verse 5, with the what they call the rebellion of Korah.

Numbers 16:5

Korah and his uh his troops come up against Moses and Aaron saying, Wait a second, who in the world put you guys in charge?

Why why do you all call the shots and Moses and Aaron just stand there humbly?

Guys, I'm just telling you, it's it's this is just God's doing.

Uh it you know, he he he put us here.

I I I don't think we're any more than we are.

God put us here.

And in the moments following, God showed just uh who his favor was upon as Korah and his troops were literally swallowed by the ground and most.

Moses and Aaron and the faithful to the Lord were safe and sound.

The Lord knows those who are his.

And I just want to encourage us all this morning.

In a culture in a world that does not like what this book says, they may like some of it.

Some of it they may say is wise and good teaching.

You know, we could learn something from that.

But overall, they don't love this book.

There's only one way to the Father.

That I've got to uh confess and ask forgiveness for my sins as if I've done things wrong.

I'm a good person.

Our culture doesn't love this book.

But in a world where the culture is more and more, seemingly by the day, hostile to this book, I just want to encourage us all who, Lord willing, stand upon the authority of God's word.

The Lord knows those who are his.

The Lord is not confused.

The Lord made no mistake in the writing of his word.

The Lord gave us his perfect word without error, and we don't have to worry if this is a good and proper authority in our lives.

The Lord knows those who are his.

So, number one, how do you destroy a healthy church in two simple steps?

Number one, just do the opposite of so much of we just said.

Just take God's word, make it a good, good, good idea, good advice instead of an ultimate authority.

And number two, I would argue, is this treat personal holiness as a good option, but not a primary pursuit.

Because, first of all, is this if God's word is our authority, then God's commands within his words matter.

If God's word is our authority, then what it says about us, what it calls us to, that really matters.

Verse 20 through 21.

Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Let's take that uh there's a lot of words in those two verses, a lot of honorables, a lot of dishonorables.

Let's make that easy on us.

That our calling as believers is to purify ourselves from what dishonors God, so that we can be a vessel, like Paul talks about, useful to our master, useful to the Lord.

Personal holiness matters within the church.

It's not just about uh a communal holiness.

A community is made up of individuals.

So personal holiness matters.

If you came over to my house, and I would argue probably the same at your house, and you came over to dinner, uh, Katie and I would put uh maybe some dishes, some plates, and some cups before you uh that are a little bit nicer.

We're gonna put our nice stuff out.

Why?

Because you're coming over.

If it's, you know, Christmas or Easter, we might even uh, you know, get the step stool and get up to that highest cabinet where the nicest of the nice things are.

Why?

Because you're coming over.

But let me tell you what we also have in our home.

We also have some dishes that come out, you know, on a random Tuesday morning breakfast that you all will never see.

That we were about to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.

We got these little plastic plates two weeks into our marriage.

We ate them in our kitchen that was about the size of this pulpit.

And we've still got them, and we still eat breakfast on them.

But if you came over to my house, I would never pull those out for you.

Those are just for us for breakfast.

In every house, and you've got the same thing, there are dishes probably for honorable use, and you know, dishes that just for the family.

What I'm getting at is this in the house of the Lord, uh I want to be, I believe you want to be a dish, a vessel that God can use for his kingdom.

You want to be a vessel that is useful in the hands of your master and father.

And so what do we need to do?

We need to flee from that which is dishonorable.

That as a church, we flee from, as we've talked about, false teaching.

We flee from sin as an individual.

You flee sin in your life.

You make war against sin as you pursue holiness.

I I love what he says in verse 22.

So flee youthful passions, flee the sin and do what?

And pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

I also love how he ends that, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Why do I love that?

It's because of this.

There will come a time in your sanctification journey.

I promise you, as you are pursuing Jesus and you are saying no to the things of the world and saying yes to the things of God and putting away sin and putting away the regrets of the past and pursuing holiness towards the Lord, there will come a moment in your life, or maybe a hundred moments in your life, where you're you are gonna wonder, Am I all alone in this?

You're gonna be tempted to wonder, and am I the strange one around here?

It seems our culture preaches everything else, and yet here I am just trying to pursue the Lord well.

Am I all alone in this pursuit?

What does Paul say, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart?

Christian, you are pursuing Christ passionately.

You are not doing it alone.

You have brothers and sisters in Christ walking beside you, uh pursuing holiness beside you.

In fact, it is critical that you have that, that walk with you, that give you that accountability.

Verse 23 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, I love this, with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repent repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil and being captured by him to do his will.

A lot of words there.

What do I get that?

Well, what do I get from that is simply this?

That our personal sanctification, it actually changes how we interact with the outside world, but even changes how we interact with one another within the church.

What do we do when there is differences of opinion even within the walls of the church?

And by the way, that happens.

And I just want to be clear, that's that's not a terrible thing that that happens.

Okay?

It'd be bad news if we were all in here and all thought the exact same thing.

God gives us all kinds of gifts and even different preferences, and that helps build us up.

Even within the walls of the church, we may have disagreements.

How do we handle those?

Certainly, how do we handle it when false teachings coming in?

We cast them out.

But I believe there are lessons that the world can learn even from how we handle our disagreements within the church.

And what Paul shows us here is that it may be that a sanctified way of handling disagreements with insiders or even those outside of the church, it may be an evangelistic process.

That in fact, how we handle one another and love one another, even in times of disagreement, is actually evangelistic to an outside world.

I'm always fascinated, always fascinated in politics, how you'll find two people, uh, especially at the national level, that probably can't disagree more politically, and yet you find out they're great friends.

It was interesting, two weeks ago, when uh Lindsey Graham tragically passed away, a story came out about how he and Joe Biden were such good friends.

Uh their politics, they're not just across the aisle, they're they're across the room.

And yet we found out they are unbelievable friends.

Uh you think of Clinton and Bush Sr.

Ran against each other in '92.

Clinton won.

And yet, since that time became great friends, have done a lot of humanitarian work together through the years until uh Bush Sr.

passed away.

You think of uh uh Obama and uh Senator McCain and their campaign and how they they disagreed greatly but said some of the nicest things about one another.

And even Barack Obama spoke at John McCain's funeral just a few years ago.

It's fascinating how in politics people that disagree so greatly can actually form these friendships.

And by the way, when I see those stories, I'm actually greatly encouraged by that.

I love to see those stories.

They tell stories that make me laugh, and they'll go to war uh over politics, and then they'll just go on vacation together.

It's fascinating.

And I just have to wonder if I can find encouragement with how politicians can treat one another as friends, which, by the way, are politicians incredibly important.

But but at the end of the day, politicians are here today and gone tomorrow, as we all are.

How much more can I be encouraged?

How much more can our world be encouraged?

When they see a group of people come together, and maybe we're not all from the same place, maybe we don't agree on every single item, maybe there are things that make us different from one another, and yet we come into this room, and what unites us is so much greater than what divides us, and we just come for the common purpose of worshiping Jesus.

It is evangelistic to the outside world.

When the church does things differently from the outside world, it is evangelistic.

Around a decade ago, uh, you may remember the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where one Sunday morning an individual came and just wreaked havoc on that congregation.

Uh by the way, a quick side note, I I am week in and week out so thankful for a team of people at this church and officers at this church and and people that keep us so safe every week, led by Todd Clippert.

I'm thankful for that team.

What a blessing from the Lord.

But you may remember uh that story, and in the aftermath of that absolute tragedy, what was so interesting, and also what the world couldn't comprehend is that so many of the members of that church, so many of the relatives of uh individuals who had passed away in that moment, they just wanted to offer forgiveness.

Now that's strange, isn't it?

That's sure not what the world says.

And I just remember reading articles and seeing stories about the forgiveness that was being offered out of the Mother Emmanuel AME church there in Charleston, South Carolina, and it looked so different from the world, and yet I am convinced when the church starts to look different, the world starts to take notice.

So to close, how would I seek to destroy a church in two easy steps?

How could we take a church that has been around for 180 years and I kid you not, maybe in six months' time, be about ready to close the doors?

I don't want to scare us, we're not doing any of these things.

Two steps.

Number one, I would take God's word and I wouldn't treat it as authority.

I just I just treat it as a good idea, a good suggestion.

And I would take the idea of as the community and as individuals our pursuit towards personal holiness, I would just take it as maybe some good advice.

If it works for you good, if not, that's okay, instead of a primary pursuit.

But here's what I believe about First Baptist El Dorado is that that will not be the case.

Because I believe this that we are a people that knows Jesus Christ, knows that he died for us, rose from the grave, knows that he has saved us from sin, death, and hell.

Why?

For the sake of bringing us to life, cleansing us, washing us, and now for the sake of expanding his kingdom even further.

And so I believe we will be a church that stands on the word of God.

I believe that's what you want.

I believe we will be a church that pursues personal holiness as a community and individually.

I believe that's what you want.

And I believe as we do it, not for our sake, for his, the Lord will bless that.

And that some of the greatest days are ahead.

Why?

Because when people are sold out to the glory of God for the sake of the kingdom of God, God loves to work, God loves to move.

And I believe we'll be that kind of church.

I believe we are that kind of church.

I believe for 180 years we've been that kind of church.

And I believe more of those days are ahead.

Let me pray for us.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the truth of the gospel.

You've died for us, Lord.

You've risen for us, Lord.

And so we want to live for you.

Lord, let us be a church that stands on your word.

Let us be a church that takes the pursuit of personal sanctification and holiness seriously.

Let us be a church that runs after you.

And Lord, I just pray that it would be evangelistic.

I just pray that the world would see that and see that there is something different about First Baptist El Dorado.

Not for the glory of man, no, no, for the glory of God.

And if there is anyone this morning that may want to come down and just say, I want to be a part of that kind of family, would they come?

Maybe they want to meet you, Lord Jesus, have a relationship with you for the first time.

Maybe they want to have a pastor pray with them, talk about baptism, whatever it is, however they need to respond.

Would they do that and be bold to do that now as we worship together in Christ's name?

Amen.

Would you stand?

As we do so, we'll worship, and I'll be down front.

If you'd like to respond in any way, come on down.