A Friendly Reminder

2 Timothy chapter 2 starting right where we left off last week verse 14 kind of

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

shifting gears a little bit here from what we've been talking about in chapter

2. Paul had been talking to Timothy about suffering for the gospel and the

first part of chapter 2 was to Timothy and really a lot of the second part is

too but here for for just a second Paul kind of shifts gears here in verse 14

giving Timothy a message to his audience here to the people of Ephesus and so

there's good instruction in here for us this is a good book in particularly for

for pastors I think it's a good book if y'all were a group of pastors we'd be

talking about different things then we talk but it's a good book for me to read

as a pastor it's a lot of good instruction in here that God convicts me

in some areas where I don't do good and so we'll see we'll see some of those

instructions to Timothy and and pastors here as we go on. 2 Timothy chapter 2

2 Timothy 2:14

verse 14 is where we will start we won't quite finish the whole chapter but we'll

we'll get close so let's pray and we'll get started. God we come to you we thank

you for your good word I pray that it would be good for us tonight dear Lord

that we would hear what you need us to hear God I pray that your Holy Spirit

would speak to us I pray that we had free ourselves from any of the

distractions and the worries and the thoughts of the world that we might have

brought into this place I pray dear Lord that you take away any pride or any

nerves that that I have tonight dear Lord that you'd hide me behind the cross

that you would help your instruction to be good instruction for us that we would

check ourselves dear Lord to see areas where we may be failing in our walk with

you and that these scriptures tonight would be an encouragement to help us to

seek you dear Lord and to be purified through Jesus Christ by your word and I

ask these things in Jesus name amen. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14 remind them

2 Timothy 2:14

of these things charging them before God okay so he's talking to his audience

here these are things that Paul tells Timothy okay you need to remind your

hearers of these things that I'm about to tell you and here's what he says not

to fight about words this is in no way profitable and leads to the ruin of the

hearers now this is good instruction for us because as Christians sometimes we

fight about words we fight about differences of opinion we have lots of

scripture before us and throughout the last couple of thousands of years these

scriptures have been interpreted in a variety of ways and even among

Christians genuine Christians followers of Jesus Christ there are sometimes

differences of interpretation differences of opinion on scriptures some

scriptures are really difficult some are really hard to understand others are

easy to understand and even if they're easy to understand we don't always

understand them the same and so sometimes we might begin to to kind of

have some disagreement or to find some some bickering or to find some arguing

or disputes over over certain words or certain beliefs because sometimes we're

labeled as this or is that depending on our beliefs and when you begin to study

scripture you begin to see that there's lots of different views and some people

are Calvinist and some people are Arminius and some people believe that

the gifts are still at work others believe that they have ceased there are

a variety of words and phrases that people will find themselves disputing

over now we must be careful as Christians that we do not major in the

minors that is that we don't let things that are not of the utmost importance

divide us but we don't do too good at that as Christians that's why when you

look out there today you see hundreds of denominations because everybody was

together and then this one said well I don't agree with that and the group

agreed with them and they split off and made another church and ten years later

they said well we don't agree with this and then that that church split off and

pretty soon you have hundreds of different denominations because people

are arguing about certain words or certain views or certain scriptures and

that's not to say that there are not things in scripture that we don't need

to take a stand on there certainly are there are some things that we don't need

to compromise that is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins

he was crucified and he was resurrected that is something that as Christians we

cannot compromise on that that we are all sinners in need of a Savior that we

are saved by grace these are things that we can not compromise on on the flip

side let's take a book like Revelation for instance Revelation is a extremely

difficult book it is full of symbolism and it is not agreed upon as to what all

that symbolism means some take the book quite symbolically figuring out what

some of the symbols are and not so sure of others others take it quite literally

now there are Christians on both sides of this argument and within these

arguments there there's probably a dozen views different views that may splinter

up in the book of Revelation and we don't we don't know for sure exactly what

it means I say that there's probably somebody here tonight or somebody

listening on the line says I can tell you what it means okay well that's the point

these are the kind of things that we can waste a lot of time arguing and

disputing over and and no good comes from it and so we need to be careful

about these things about these words or these beliefs or these views that we may

get caught up on and why is that don't fight about words this is in no way

profitable and leads to the ruin of the hearers now we could sit here all night

tonight and we could talk about will there be a future rapture how will that

future rapture occur will it be treat pre tribulation mid tribulation post

tribulation some of you say I don't even know what those words are we can argue

about that all night tonight and likely none of our minds would be changed if we

have a view at all and what good would it do well it wouldn't do any good we

would likely just argue and then we'd go out saying can you believe that he

believes that or she believes that and so a lot of these things we just simply

need to agree to disagree there are some things we cannot compromise on but there

are some things we have to just let go there are many Christians that believe

the earth is young seven eight thousand years there are other Christians that

say no it's millions of years those days stand for a long period of time we can

argue about that tonight till the cows come home and we're not going to make

any progress so we need to recognize the things that matter and the things that

do not matter the things that are going to build up the kingdom of God and the

things that are going to divide God's people and the devil is so good at doing

that the devil is so good it won't be cause dispute and disagreement over

things that don't matter in churches and we must be on guard that we don't fight

about words that are not for the benefit of the kingdom of God and it says are in

no way profitable and leads to the ruin of hearers now that's that's that's

pretty serious it leads to the ruin now we don't want to be those who ruin what

somebody believes about God's word we don't want to ruin their walk with God

with a bunch of nonsense and and and and some things that aren't necessarily of

the most important now this is this is certainly something that that that

convicts me as I read this as a pastor to say okay I better make sure that I

do a better job and we have to be careful of the things that we talk about

and discuss as brothers and sisters in Christ and we watch our words and we

don't fall into that trap of arguing about stuff that doesn't matter verse 15

be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who doesn't need to be

ashamed correctly teaching the word of truth now here kind of seems like he's

switching back to instruction to Timothy now the audience needed to know hey

don't fight about these words but here he tells Timothy what he says be

diligent our King James is what I'm most familiar with when I think about this

passage study to show yourself approved okay so if Timothy is gonna be one who's

trying to preach to the people and who's trying to teach the people then the

instruction that Paul gives him is study to show yourself approved to God a

worker who doesn't need to be ashamed correctly teaching the word of truth

okay so this is a good good verse for me I kind of I kind of thought about this

verse today as a pastor okay are there times that I'm not as studied as I

should be well certainly there are there are times that I say boy I'm not I'm

underprepared or there are times that I say golly I didn't present that in a good

way or maybe my heart wasn't in it or maybe that was confusing or maybe I

should have studied more or maybe I didn't make a good point or maybe I

should have left this point out or maybe this was too much or maybe this was not

enough or whatever it may be there are certainly times for those who preach and

teach that that might be the case and so what is he telling study to show

yourself approved so that you don't need to be ashamed now that's a bad feeling

now now you guys probably don't know this because you're not a pastor but

that's a bad feeling when you really feel like olly I didn't I didn't prepare

enough I didn't present that the way I shouldn't have said that or I said that

in the wrong way or that was with the wrong heart that's a bad feeling when

you do that the only thing worse than hearing a bad sermon is preaching a bad

sermon if you if you feel bad saying well that was a bad sermon I hated to

sit through that well it's just as bad for the one that preaches it to look

back and say you know I really failed the Lord there I didn't do what I should

have done there I didn't do right by God I didn't do right by the people and so

Paul tells Timothy here he says look study so that you'll be prepared and

then you can present things and the way that they need to be presented so that

you don't have to be ashamed but that you can correctly teach the Word of God

that you can correctly teach the truth of God's Word okay so he tells him what

to do study so you can present the word correctly but in verse 16 he says but

avoid irreverent empty speech for this will produce an even greater measure of

godlessness okay this is important important so so avoid these things

irreverent speech you need to be reverent when you speak you need to be

respectful to what you're doing you're presenting the Word of God you're trying

to present it to people so that that God's people can hear the Word of God

and grow in the Word of God what does it say to avoid empty speech that is saying

a bunch of words that may sound good but at the end of it all there's not much

that's been said now I'm certainly when I read this today I was convicted of it

I said Kylie I'm I'm guilty of that sometimes you can say things and and it

might be a lot of words and they might be words that sound good but at the end

of it is there any substance to it sometimes it's just empty speech

sometimes I'll read I won't say any names because I don't want it to sound

like that I'm bashing folks but sometimes I'll read you know some great

Christian thinkers that are that are just super smart and well respected and

for good reason but sometimes I'll read their books and they'll be this thick

and I'll read pages of it and they won't say nothing I'm like I read all that

stuff and you ain't said nothing you know and there was a book that I had to

read the last semester of seminary and it was two volumes stacked together they

were this thick and I had to read chapter after chapter and it was like the same

thing over and over and it was nothing and I was just listening to somebody

last week I listen like two chapters of their book and I was like I didn't get

anything out of that like I understood what they were saying but they said a

lot of words to say a little and and I think about that and I think golly I'm

guilty of that and so what does Paul say he says look study to show yourself

approved so that you're presenting things that are right and accurate and

good that people can grow from and don't say a bunch of empty words that are not

of any importance and these are good instructions now I'm just kind of

preaching to myself now because y'all aren't preachers I'm just so y'all just

just listen while I preach to myself but these are good that yeah these are good

instructions though these are good instructions for us to look at to make

sure that that that that we don't fall into these traps and so don't use a

bunch of empty words and why is that he says for this will produce an even

greater measure of godlessness it's not for God when you just rambling on some

of your translations may say Bible don't Bible on there's there's godlessness

that comes from that there's there's not good that comes from that and so we

don't want to be those who Babylon and who have empty speech that's not building

up godliness and people and we need to be careful as pastors that we don't do

that and then he kind of shift gears here again it's kind of kind of difficult

that's kind of a abrupt transition here and I looked at every translation I was

gonna use a different translation just just for this purpose of kind of this

translation in this verse and he just kind of jumps from saying okay don't

present these things of godlessness because there are some who are living in

this type of godlessness that's kind of the the transition we're making here and

here's what he says and their words that is these who are practicing this

godlessness those who are preaching and teaching these empty words that are not

doing it for God's glory and their word will spread like gangrene okay so this

is bad it's like a disease that will spread and if it is not taking care of

it will eventually destroy you so gangrene is not a good thing and that's

the example that he used it's like a disease that that somebody gives when

they when they when they get to this level of godlessness and that begins to

be their focus and they're not lifting one another up but they're arguing about

things that do not matter given a bunch of empty speech and there are some who

have fallen into this trap and who are living in this way and so this is a good

this is a good word of warning okay so verse 17 and their word will spread like

gangrene hominous and felitis are among them now you may remember hominous you

may remember him from first Timothy I believe chapter 1 where Paul is talking

about a couple of guys hominous and Alexander and he says that they have

made a shipwreck of their faith and that he handed them over to Satan so that

they would be taught not to blaspheme so these were false teachers who were not

teaching the gospel it's not just that they were that they were followers of

Jesus Christ that were not not doing a good job but it appears as though they

were really teaching some things that were untrue they were teaching false

doctrine and so we saw a mention of hominous there we don't know much about

him but we see him mentioned again here so he must have been causing some

problem he obviously had some impact in that area and teaching some false

doctrines to the people and here we see him listed with felitis so hominous and

felitis are among them he names these people by name this is somebody

obviously that Timothy would have known we don't know much about him felitis we

don't know anything about him I think this is the only mention of his name and

all of scripture but Paul tells Timothy because he would have known these guys

and he would have needed to be on the lookout for these guys and be aware of

what they were teaching and Paul is about to tell us that in the next verse

verse 18 they have deviated from the truth saying that the resurrection has

already taken place and they're overturning the faith of some okay so

they were teaching some false teachings likely many false teachings but he calls

out one in particular here maybe this was the only one I don't know but he

calls this one out and what were they doing first he says they've deviated

from the truth well you're already off to a bad bad start when you deviate from

the truth we are in trouble now what is the truth Jesus Christ is the truth

that's the truth and when we begin to deviate from Jesus Christ and the

teachings of Jesus Christ and the teaching of scripture then there's

nothing good is going to come from that there but there are a lot of religion

and a lot of religious groups and a lot of Christian so-called Christian

denominations that at one point started with the Word of God but then they begin

to add to the truth of the Word of God they begin to expand it and they begin to

expound upon it and they begin to add to it and pretty soon they're not preaching

the truth at all and there might be some shreds of Jesus in there certainly in

and in many religions they'll talk about Jesus they might talk about God's Word

but oftentimes as you begin to dig a little deeper with a lot of religious

groups or a lot of denominations they did not stick to the truth they have

deviated from the truth and the same way that Hymenaeus and Philetus did here

they have deviated from the truth and they have begun to teach things that were

untrue and what's the problem with that well it was affecting those who were in

Christ it was affecting Christians and what were they saying they were saying

that the resurrection had already taken place okay so you can understand how

this could cause some concern for people so you have a group of people here the

gospel of Jesus Christ begins to make its way through you got Paul you got all

these early folks making these missionary journeys and they're going and

they're preaching and they're teaching and people are just coming to Jesus

Christ left and right to hear the gospel they're repeating of their sins they're

getting baptized they are Christians and they're looking forward to the promise

of the day that Jesus Christ is going to return and then all the sudden you have

these teachers saying oh by the way Jesus has returned well wait a minute

that would cause some fear that would make you think well wait a minute why

didn't Jesus come back for me or or maybe all this stuff wasn't true if

Jesus has returned and God's people were supposed to go with Jesus when he

returned and I don't know anybody that's gone with Jesus and so it begins to get

people to question that teaching of Jesus Christ well well maybe that teaching

wasn't true or maybe I've missed Jesus Christ and so this was a pretty

detrimental teaching that these guys were teaching that Jesus Christ had

returned now Paul gave some some comforting words of instruction to the

people of Thessalonica if you want to turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 1st

Thessalonians chapter 4 you probably are familiar with this passage verse 13 is

where we'll start

he's given a little encouragement and particularly about those who have fallen

asleep that is they have died and in this passage he gives some encouragement

which would also I think be encouraging for for those who were in trouble

because of these false teachings 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 13 we did not

want you to be uninformed brothers concerning those who are asleep so that

you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope since we believe that Jesus

died and rose again in the same way God will bring with him those who have

fallen asleep through Jesus for we say this to you by a revelation from the

Lord we who are still alive at the Lord's coming will certainly have no

advantage over those who have fallen asleep for the Lord himself will descend

from heaven with a shout with the Archangel's voice and with the trumpet

of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are still alive will

be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and

so we will always be with the Lord therefore encourage one another with

these words so this was the promise that was given that Jesus Christ was one day

going to come and the dead in Christ would rise first and those who were left

would be raised with him in the air and what does he say be encouraged with

these words so you can understand why the teachings of Hymenaeus and Philetus

would have been discouraging and why it would have overturned the faith of some

they would have said either a these teachings these the things that Paul

are saying here are either untrue or either I've missed the boat that would

lead to a lot of despair and so Paul tells Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 2

that hey here's what you need to be aware of here's what you need to address

here some of these false teachings and these words that we just read here in

first Thessalonians would be good words to combat to give some comfort and some

hope to those whose faith were in danger of being overturned all right back to

2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 19 nevertheless God's solid foundation

stands firm having this inscription the Lord knows those who are his and everyone

who names the name of the Lord must turn away from unrighteousness okay so God's

foundation is going to stand firm you've got people like Timothy and people like

Paul who are doing the work of God who are genuinely serving the Lord who are

preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ who are true followers of God and there were

certainly others who proclaimed to be true followers of God but they were not

and it was it was obvious by the things that they were teaching so God's firm

foundation will stand strong that is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ but

what does it say the Lord knows those who are his the Lord's able to discern

the Lord's able to take care the Lord's able to to help those who are doing the

work and the Lord is able to hinder those who are trying to not spread the

gospel of Jesus Christ are spread a lot so the Lord knows what's going on the

Lord is not deceived and we want to make sure that we are not deceived and so

what is he doing here Paul is sending Timothy to address these false teachings

so that no one else will be deceived by these two men and what they are doing

everyone who names the name of the Lord must turn away from right unrighteousness

obviously these guys were not doing that they apparently may have been

professing Jesus Christ but they had not turned from unrighteousness they were

very much practicing unrighteousness now what about us if we name the name of the

Lord that is if we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ are we those who have

turned from our unrighteousness because once we put our faith and trust in Jesus

Christ that's what our life should look like if we claim to be a follower of

Jesus Christ but we are still habitually living an unrighteousness then it may

very well be that we are not followers of Jesus Christ maybe these guys thought

they were followers of Jesus Christ but it's obvious by the way that they were

living that they were not followers of Jesus Christ so we need to make sure

that we don't fall into that trap maybe we do fall into that trap maybe we do

fall into that trap of being not where we need to be well Paul addresses that

in these next couple of verses verse 20 now in a large house there are not only

gold and silver bowls but also those of wood and clay okay now this is this is

pretty pretty easy for us to understand in your house you got your fancy stuff

and then you got some stuff you eat off of every day you just eat off the old

plates and the old bowls every day but when company comes you get out the good

dishes you get out the gold silverware or whatever it is well I guess it's not

gold if it's silverware I don't know you get out the gold utensils you get out

the fancy pots you get out the nice napkins you get out all the good stuff

now every year when we go to my parents for Christmas my mom has all this spode

Christmas stuff and all the plates are there and you got this size plate you

got bowls and you got all the matching forks and spoons and in the rest of the

time you go up there you know a paper plate that's what we do we understand

that okay there's some nice things and there's some not nice things and Paul is

using that illustration to make a point okay so there's gold and silver but

there's also some lesser things the everyday things that you don't that you

use every day you don't bust out the good stuff and those are the clay and

the wood and he says some for honorable use and some for dishonorable so if

anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable he will be a special

instrument set apart useful to the master prepared for every good work okay

so there are some things that are that are that are honorable that are good to

use there are some things that are dishonorable you don't you cannot use

the dishonorable things for something that is honorable for instance maybe

you've got an old tub at your house that you use to soak your feet in well you

don't make your roast for church in the tub that you soak your feet in it's

dishonorable if you do please let me know I'm sure we'd be glad to take up an

offer him to buy you a new roast pan at the end of church tonight we understand

that there are some things that are dishonorable and so you don't put

anything good in your foot pan you you could put your food in your in your good

pans okay and so he says that there are some things that are honorable and

there are some things that are dishonorable but what he says is is

that the dishonorable can be purified praise the Lord because that's you and

me we are dishonorable and when we are living in these things that he's talking

about and many other things that aren't mentioned sin in general when we're

living our life in such a way that we're just we're we're disputing over things

that doesn't matter and we're causing trouble and we got a bunch of empty

speech and we're not living by the truth and what we are is we are

dishonorable now if I were to go around and ask every one of you tonight do you

want to be used by God I would hope that everybody would say yes I would like to

be used by God but the problem is is that sometimes we're not fit to be used

by God we're not in good shape our hearts not right we're living in sin and

we we can't be effective and useful to God when we are in a dishonorable state

but praise the Lord even that that is common even that that is dishonorable

be purified that's what he said so if anyone purifies himself from anything

dishonorable he is a special instrument okay now we can be used by God so when

we repent of our sins when we confess our sins when we begin to seek God when

we begin to live by the truth then we will be special instruments then we will

be purified by the precious blood of Jesus Christ then our consciousness will

be we be cleansed then our hearts will be made right then we will begin to

think like God and love like God and have a heart for others like God but

that only comes when we've been purified it doesn't come when we're dishonorable

it doesn't come when we're living in sin and maybe tonight there's some there's

some dishonorable things in our life and we need some purification so that we

don't fall into the trap of Hymenaeus and Philetus that we don't get that far

from the truth that we don't become those who were arguing about things that

don't matter that are turning others away from the faith so maybe there are

some things in our life that are dishonorable tonight but praise the

Lord through Jesus Christ we can be purified and we can be made into

something special boy that has a good sound that we can be made into something

special that if we sit here tonight and say I want to be used by God that we

can be used by God that he will make us fit through Jesus Christ that he will

change our hearts that he can and will use us as instruments that are special

and set apart but only when we've been purified it says then he will be a

special instrument set apart useful to the master prepared for every good work

now I don't know about you but but hopefully we all want to be useful to

the master prepared for every good work but we're not prepared for every good

work if we're living in sin so we need to confess that sin we need to repent of

that sin and we need to seek God tonight if there's something there that shouldn't

be there that God would begin to work in our life that God would begin to make us

a new creation that he would restore us that he would purify us so that we can

be brothers and sisters in Christ who can be used to do the good work of the

kingdom of God let's pray father God we come to you tonight I thank you for

these good words these good instructions dear Lord I pray that you forgive me for

my failures of the areas where as a leader that I don't always say the

things that need to be said or don't say I'm right dear Lord or just Babylon

about things that don't bring clarity but confusion dear Lord I pray that you

forgive me for that and help me to do better help your spirit to to speak to

me help me to hear clearly dear Lord help us all tonight to be those who are

purified maybe there are some things that are hearts and in our lives today

that make us dishonorable dear Lord we don't want to be that way we want to be

those who who are purified who can hear clearly from you who can listen to you

and who can be useful for your kingdom dear Lord we do not want to be those who

are guilty of bringing just trouble in your kingdom of turning folks away from

you dear Lord we do not want to be those who are like Hymenaeus and Phileas and

Alexander dear Lord to make a shipwreck of our faith so dear Lord I pray that we

would not be those who wander from the truth but that we would continually seek

the truth of your word and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we would

be made pure through his precious blood and ready for the good works that you

set before us and I ask these things in Jesus name amen