Hold Fast

All the all of the men that are filling in for pastor while he's

gone. And so doc is the doc is going

to preach for us tonight or teach and then so get your

Bibles out and what he's coming. All right, since we got so many

men gone, I thought it'd be appropriate to preach on

husbands or wives, submit yourself to your own husbands.

But that's not what I'm going to.

So we're not we're going to look at you know, usually pastor

gives us about a month heads up, but this time it was a little

sooner. So he just asked last week and I

was just asking the Lord what, you know, what to to speak on

and is that we're sitting down here constantly.

We're looking at our hold fast. And so I thought it'd be

appropriate just to refresh our our memories about what what

that is. And I don't remember.

I didn't on purpose. I didn't go back and look to see

what he preached on the vision Sunday because I didn't want to,

didn't want to know because if this is repetitive, then it's

just that's the way it worked out.

So anyway, let's turn to Second Timothy, chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

We'll start there. I'm just going to read the first

13 verses. I'm going to see if I can read

as fast as Pastor Simeon you know he was that that guy could

that guy could book reading the Bible, but second Timothy

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God

according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus to

Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace mercy and peace from God

the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure

conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my

prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being

mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call

to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which

dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice.

And I am persuaded that in Thee also, wherefore I put thee in

remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in

thee by the putting on of my hands.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power,

and of love, and of a sound mind.

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor

of me his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the

afflictions of the Gospel, according to the power of God,

who hath saved us and called us within holy calling, not

according to our works, but according to His own purpose and

grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world

began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our save of

our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath

brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

Where? Whereunto I am appointed A

preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles For the

which 'cause I also suffer these things.

Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed

and am persuaded that he is able all he's able to keep that which

I have committed unto him against that day.

Hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me

in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.

And that'll be our basically our text verse.

But I was just thinking about thinking about holding fast and

I I like you'll warf more movies and warf things like that.

And I think about like the time of David and when they were

fighting, they fought with, you know, hand to hand combat.

And so back in Second Samuel. Let's see if I can turn there

real quick. Second Samuel, I believe chapter

23, it's talking about David's mighty men.

These be the names of the mighty men whom David had the

Tachmanite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains, the

same as Adino, the Eznite. He lift up his spear against

800, whom he slew at one time. And after him was Eleazar, the

son of Dodo the Yahoo height, one of the three mighty men with

David. When they defied when they

defied the Philistines that were gathered together to the battle

in the middle of Israel were gone away.

He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was

weary and his hand clave unto the sword.

And the Lord brought a great victory that day.

So that's I think that would be considered holding fast.

He was holding on with a a strong grip.

So hold, hold means cling, grasp, grip firmly, retain.

So different meanings of the word and fast in in this context

with hold fast means completely or tightly.

So I can just picture that with him, him, you know, hand to hand

combat with that sword, his hand basically was I, I can see them

just having to peel his fingers off of it because he was holding

fast. He wasn't going to let that

weapon go. That was his.

That was his protection and his weapon.

So but anyway, the that is exactly the picture Paul was

giving to Timothy, I think in in this letter.

And this is Paul's in prison. And this, as far as we know,

this is Paul's last words that he wrote to anybody in chapter

4, Second Timothy, it says in verse four or verse 5.

But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work

of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my

departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight.

I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.

So Paul is, I think even the context and the seriousness of

Second Timothy as compared to First Timothy, it's much more

serious and sober because he wants to get something across to

Timothy as his last message to him.

And Timothy being a good listener and a good follower and

a good and close friend. He calls him his son Timothy.

He, he listened, He wanted to listen and follow what Paul had

to say. So Timothy wasn't a casual

listener. He was serious in his listening.

And that's something we all need to do.

He traveled with Paul, he sat under his teaching, he watched

his life and he heard the pure gospel straight from the

apostles lips. Paul says don't let it slip,

don't water it down, don't trade it for something new or popular.

Hold fast. I was looking I'm going to do

this from my phone because I looked up some verses just to

see where hold fast is in the Bible and it was 9 verses

including our our text verse first job, my righteousness, I

hold fast and typically it's hold fast.

It's in a positive manner where he's holding fast to his

righteousness, holding fast to good things.

But Jeremiah on the other hand, he says, why then is this people

of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding.

They hold fast deceit they refuse to return.

So there's holding fast on to what's right, but there's also

holding fast on to the wrong thing.

And we don't want to be that person holding fast to the wrong

to sin. 1st Thessalonians 521 says prove all things hold fast,

that which is good. And then our verse, Second

Timothy 113 Hebrews 36. But Christ as a son over his own

house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the

rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end?

And then he was 414 Seeing then that we have a great high priest

that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us

hold fast our profession. Then Hebrews 10/23 let us hold

fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is

faithful that promised it. Then a couple verses in

Revelations where Jesus speaking to the churches and it's hold

fast till I come. Jesus is telling him hold fast.

So Paul preached that Jesus preached that and then we we

definitely want to be following that.

So what are we to hold fast since he's giving that command

to Timothy? What was he telling Timothy to

hold fast? And then in our text verse it

says hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me

in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.

Hold fast the form of sound words.

The phrase hold fast, we already talked about means to cling

tightly, to retain firmly, never let go even when pressure comes.

It's it's it's active. It's an active thing that we're

doing. It's the opposite of, I guess

being lazy or just drifting and not doing anything with what

you've been given. And what exactly are we to hold

besides the for this form of sound words, form or pattern?

In many translations it means a standard or a template.

I was thinking of a form, as Paul would know, you lay a form

out when you're going to pour some in or something like that,

you want the cement to look a certain way.

If you're putting in a sidewalk and the sidewalk maybe winds,

those forms have to be just right.

And so when you put that cement in there, it hardens, you remove

the form, but that sidewalk is still the way it's supposed to

be. If we follow God's word and we

stick with that and holding, holding a form of sound words,

then we're going to be basically, we'll be straight,

we'll be, we'll be doing what God wants us to do.

So Paul's teaching is very, very straightforward.

It's not his opinion. He's giving what God gave him.

So it's it was clear and a definite path like like that

following the form of for cement.

My illustration there, sound words literally means healthy,

wholesome or healing words. These are teachings that produce

spiritual health, not sickness. They lead to godliness and not

error. So Paul is saying, cling to the

pure doctrine of the gospel. When we think about that, we

wanted to be clinging to holding on to the truth about Christ's

death, burial, and resurrection, about salvation by grace through

faith. These important doctrines that

Paul was teaching through his his Gospels, the authority of

the Scriptures, the holiness of God, the reality of judgment and

eternal life. And there is judgment for for a

Christian say, but there's also judgment, eternal judgment for

the unsaved. In verse 14 says that good thing

which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost, which

dwelleth in us. So he was in, he was entrusting

Timothy with a good doctrine given by the Holy Spirit and it

was passed from Paul to Timothy, Timothy to the next person, the

next person to to the next person all the way down to us.

We've been given the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the the

perfect word of God in the Scriptures and we are to pass

that on. So I think about that and to,

you know, our children, we need to be passing that on to our

children so that they can pass it on to their children and

future generations so that we have what's happened for the

last 2000 years, just a perpetuation of the gospel going

forward. And then so we know what we're

all to hold fast to, how are we to hold fast?

And that our verse tells us hold fast the form of sound words

which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in

Christ Jesus. Hold fast in faith and love

which is in Christ Jesus. Paul doesn't just say hold fast,

he tells, he tells Timothy, he tells us how in faith we hold

the truth with sincere trust in the Lord Jesus.

So our our faith is in the Lord Jesus.

That's our first believing faith for salvation.

And then it's our our faith in the Lord Jesus to follow him in

our Christian life. It's not a dry intellectual

knowledge. It's believing the truth with

all our hearts, trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, then Bible tells

us that today is the day of salvation.

So really some of the younger kids, I know most of us here on

Wednesday night trusted the Lord as our Savior.

But some of these younger kids may be have not.

It's something that as parents, you talked with them and deal

with them and, and the Holy Spirit will lead you and

hopefully them to to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus

Christ. So in faith and in love, we hold

it with genuine love for Christ and then genuine love for

others. So we love as a Christian, we

love him because he first loved us.

The Bible tells us, and but we should love others as well.

And that's part of, I think, wanting to share it with our

families so that they we can perpetuate the gospel, but then

sharing it with others that are not saved because we love them.

And that's I'm telling you, that's a hard thing for me to do

because I don't know. You just see the wickedness of

the world if you watch the news and you get discouraged because

it's like this is such a wicked we're and these people are

horrible. Well, we can't help it that

they're horrible. We that's, you know, they're,

they're the children of the devil.

We have to love them. And so I pray for me that I'll

be better at that. But anyway, in faith and in

love, we don't hold fast to sound doctrine by our own

strength or cleverness. We do it in Christ Jesus,

relying on His power, abiding in Him, and letting His Spirit work

in US and through us. And then thirdly, why must we

hold fast? Paul wrote this because he saw

the danger. Verses 15 through 18.

This knows that all they which are in Asia be turned away from

me, of whom are jealous and homogeneous.

The Lord give mercy unto the House of Vanessa for us, for He

offered fresh me, and was not ashamed of my chain.

But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently

and found me and the Lord. Yeah, that basically I think in

verse 15 thou this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia

be turned away from me, of whom are Vagelis and homogenies.

So Paul knew that people would be turning against Timothy as

well, and he wanted to share that, that he needs to be

prepared. He needs to be able to stand

against bulls and sheep clothing in the midst of the church

against those that are outside the church that are attacking

him. And he needs to have the

strength to do that and not fall away from the truth that he had

learned from Paul. So it's very similar in our day

where we have the pressures of the the culture pressures of

churches that have gone away from what's right and teaching

the, the true word of God and are trying to, you know, work,

work up spiritual spirituality with music and the lights and

what we've all talked about. And you know, pastors talked

about that many times having a rock concert to to try and draw

people in, but you're not drawing them to the Savior.

You're drawing them to a performer and trying to build a

crowd and maybe make money through what's supposed to be a

church ministry. So things like that our culture

like they call biblical truth hate speech and we be we need to

be able to stand against that false teachers who twist the

scripture and fit modern desires, temptation to be

relevant like being the cool guy in the skinny jeans and T-shirt

up here. Preaching or so-called preaching

and personal trials that make us want to back off.

Maybe we're going through some real struggles in our life or

finances or health or whatever it might be and makes us want to

back off from serving the Lord and holding fast.

So we want to be careful about that.

If we let go of sound doctrine, we lose our anchor and church

becomes powerless. Church has become powerless,

believers become unstable, and the gospel loses its saving

power in our proclamation. So if we're trying to spread the

gospel, if we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit and

we've lost that, then we're not going to be able to proclaim

that gospel in a way that it should be proclaimed.

But when we hold fast, we stand firm like a lighthouse in the

storm, guiding others to safety. And that's what we should be as

a church, a lighthouse guiding others to safety.

And we, I think our church, you know, pastor does a good job of

encouraging us to be that lighthouse.

And we are out here with the Bibles and we're Brian's group

knocking on doors. And eventually when we have

room, we'll have a bus ministry. And we're looking forward to

that day. That's always a lot of fun.

It brings a lot of excitement to the church when you could run

the buses. So how do we hold fast today?

What's the practical application?

Know the Word of God, read, study, and memorize Scripture.

Second Timothy 2:15. I'm sure you you probably know

2 Timothy 2:15

these verses, but I'll read a couple of these to you.

Second Timothy 2:15. Says Study to show thyself

2 Timothy 2:15

approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.

And second Timothy 3:15 it says in that from a child thou has

2 Timothy 3:15

known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto

salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

So Timothy was taught by his grandmother and his mother the

Scriptures and he knew them from a young child.

So that's important that we know the word of God and we memorize

it. Now I'm having a lot harder time

memorizing the Bible as I'm getting as not as young as I

used to be. So I struggle with that every

week. I'm like, man, how many verses

to say and I look at the date and the last when was the last

time you remember you said a verse in your book who was a

month ago? I really need to work on that.

You know, I take the brain supplements and everything.

It just doesn't doesn't doesn't seem to work.

Believe and obey. Let the truth shape your life.

Live it out in faith and love. Titus 38 turn there.

Titus 38 says this is a faithful saying, and these things I will

that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God

might be careful to maintain good works.

These things are good and profitable unto men.

So believe and obey doing the works that we're supposed to do

as Christians teach and pass it on.

Talked about that earlier teaching our children, but back

in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Go there.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

I'm just going to read it when I get there.

So if you don't get there, sorry about that.

Here, O Lord, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and

with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And these words which I have, which I command thee this day,

shall be in thine heart, And thou shalt teach them diligently

unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest

in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when

thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they

shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

So we want to pass that on. And so the verse 9.

And thou shalt write them upon thy post of thy house and on thy

gates. So it's always nice when you go,

you go to somebody's house and they have there's Bible verses

around. It's just, you know, nice to see

that or the Bible is always there somewhere prominent in the

house. So that's, that's a good thing

and a blessing. So they're, they're teaching it,

passing it on, rely on the Holy Spirit, pray for the Holy

Spirit's power daily. And he's the one who keeps us

faithful. Help us to hold fast by by

having the Holy Spirit's power, and then stand even when it

costs. Be willing to suffer for the

gospel just as Paul did. Don't be ashamed of Christ or

his words. Second Timothy 112 Back in our

text chapter there. Second Timothy 112 for the which

'cause I also suffer these things.

Nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed

and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have

committed unto him against that day and then hold fast, hold

fast. So it's important that we, we

hold fast to sound the form of sound words or the the Bible.

And basically that's the sound, the most sound words you can

have is from God's Word. And we don't want to drift with

the culture, don't want to compromise to make our lives

easier. Don't trade healthy truth for

empty promises. So that's it.

Hold fast in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love

you and we thank you for your goodness to us.

Thank you for this. Just a reminder of our need to

hold fast in the truths of your word and the truth of salvation

that provided by you and in the truth of the the importance of

sharing the gospel and perpetuating it through our

families, see our children, our grandchildren saved and

spreading that to future generations.

Lord, I pray you'd help us to do that.

I pray you just work in our hearts throughout the rest of

the week. We do pray for the men down in

Belize and we thank you for them, their willingness to go

down there and work. Pray that you would just bless

the work that they do there. Bless the rest of this evening

and we thank you for your word. Again, in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. I don't know, it's been several

months now, maybe maybe even a couple years.

There was a Baptist pastor that came out and he was pretty proud

of the fact that he was switching to Catholicism.

You guys remember hearing about that.

There's been a few few people like that in in the in the news

and things like that. But how does that happen?

How did you how do you I'm not Paul was very clear.

He said some of them went out from us because they were not of

us. Right.

So that that's very likely the reason.

But how do you grow up in a Baptist Church, hear the gospel

preached here, good doctrine, I would assume preached and then

be a pastor yourself and then go and say, you know what, the

Catholic, the Catholic religion. I think that's, that's the truth

there. You're not holding fast.

And I, I was thinking this, you know, when you used to go to

your grandparents house, My grandparents when we grew up, we

lived in Indiana and they lived in Iron Mountain, MI.

I was like 8 hours away. And every time without failing

it, I'm sure everybody that doesn't live near their

grandparents hears this. Every time we saw them.

What was their phrase? Ma, you're getting so big when

you're looking at each other, you don't, you don't see each

other grow. And you, you know, your, your

siblings, you don't seem to change that much day-to-day.

But when you don't see somebody for a year and then you see

them, there's a big change. That's what happens when you

don't hold fast. You may not see the changes

day-to-day, but we pastor has said it many times.

If you're not going forward, what's happening?

You're you're going backwards, you're backsliding.

And Proverbs warns about it. The backsliding, that's not

hold. That's what not holding fast is.

And so you know, you don't hold fast.

And I don't mean go to church. I mean hold fast.

That truth that we've been given from God.

What happens? Somebody sees you a year later

and they're shocked at how far you've drifted, right?

We may not see it ourselves, but that's what happens when we

don't hold fast. I think it's very important.

We're not passing down. He said, mentioned this right at

the very end that we pass the past, this truth down generation

to generation. We're not passing down herbal

remedies, right? We're passing the truth of the

gospel from generation to generation to generation.

And he says that that good thing which was committed unto thee,

this was not just, you know, a recipe that hey, it's not

written down. So my mom had had some of those.

I'm sure others have secret, secret ingredients and secret

recipes that I'll pass down to one of my daughters and she'll

be the only one that knows it. That's not what this is.

This is the truth that Christ died for our sins.

And he says that good thing which was committed unto thee,

keep it by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.

That's a really, really powerful verse fact that we cannot do it

by ourselves. You're not going to be able to

keep that truth and and and hold fast and do all that on our own.

Keep it by the Holy Ghost which dwell within us.

Very important part of that verse there.

But yeah, that's great, Great reminder.

But these are things that we do on a daily basis.

I was just talking to a guy at work and he said I can't, I just

don't want to go to church and not know.

He didn't grow up in church, but he said I don't want to go to

church and not understand what's being talked about.

So once I kind of have a grasp on the Bible, then I'll start

going to church. And I said, you'll, you'll never

have a full grasp on the Bible. A, if you're not saved, but B,

if you don't just start sitting under the truth of the word of

God. But for those of us that are

coming to church on Sundays, Sundays not enough.

You need to be in God's Word daily.

And we see lots of that in the Bible.

But so that we can keep that, that good thing, we can hold

fast to that which was committed unto us.

That's how you you read the Bible and you're meditating on

it and the Holy Spirit's working on you.

And that's what motivates us and gets us eager to go out and

share it with others. We don't have that on our own

only through the Holy Spirit and that, that power that that he

gives us will we go out and share it with others.

And that's how we keep that good thing that was committed unto

us. We, we keep it going.

Not a religion as this is the only true Christianity is the

only faith that is not religion. And that's a, that's a pretty

powerful thing. There's so many religions out

there that are all just man made.

They're, they're, they are trying to perpetuate it because

it's not truth. They have to keep it, keep it

going, keep it exciting because it's not true.

We have the Holy Spirit that is ready to do it through us if we,

if we let them. And so that's a, that's a good

reminder and a good challenge to us, not just to keep it in our

hearts or to know what the truth is, which is why it's so

important that, you know, God puts us in our own little

corner. You know the song Brighten the

corner where you are? I always thought it said right

in the corner where you are. When I was a kid, I didn't know

what the song meant, but brighten the corner where you

are. Most of us will never be in that

corner, right? I forget what school you're at,

Brother Paul, but I'll probably never even step foot in that

school. But that's your corner.

He'll never meet most of the guys at Columbia Gas, but that's

my corner. And we each have our own little

corner that we are entrusted to, to keep, to hold fast and to to

give that gospel to those in our corner.

So great reminder. Go ahead and stand with me.

We'll play a couple verses of invitation.

And if God has spoken to your heart, you come forward and deal

with Him.