Multiply Through a Firm Conviction of the Scripture | October 11, 2026

Multiply Through a Firm Conviction on the Scripture October 11, 2026 01: Well, we only have a few more messages in our multiply series. Actually, after today, two more, and Second Timothy is done. So I want to leave you with some salient ideas. Here is one idea that you ought to grasp. There is a kind of growth, a kind of spiritual growth that comes from watching the right people live the right way for a long time. There is a kind of growth that comes from staying close to someone who has stayed close to the scriptures. So I hear people all the time say, Well, I went to a conference, or lots lots of people say I listened to a podcast, to the degree we even did some podcasting. Some people say I've come up with a strategy session. But if you really want to deepen in your walk with Jesus, One of the best things to do is not attend the conference, nor listen to a podcast, nor attend some strategy session. Be in proximity with someone who walks the Christian life. Do life together. S walk see what they do, and they see what you do. And that type of relationship, that type of mentorship does more than anything that is not embodied does. We like to to kind of personalize everything. Well listen to this. I'll do this because I like it. But but the idea of walking with some living with someone who has really tried to live the Bible and knows the Bible, that level of proximity is where real deepening happens. And so if you leave this message series and you want to take some truths with you, that is one of them. Two big ideas today we're gonna see. In just a moment, you open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 10 through 17. We want to talk today about the power of a good example. lots of people say, Well, I don't want people to watch my life, I just want them to watch Jesus. Well, the truth is they are watching your life. And so the example you set is the example that they follow. And so we ought to think about that pretty significantly today. And we also ought to today think about what is the role and function in our life so that we can live faithfully, not only as examples, but as just followers of Jesus. If you have a Bible, Second Timothy chapter three, verses ten through seventeen, where we kind of start the wind down of Second Timothy as these final words are issued. The first big idea is this today to multiply. We need to emulate the emulate the lives of faithful mentors, especially in their suffering. Verse 10 says, But you have in you but you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecution and suffering that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from them all. In fact, All those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. Last Sunday was a great Sunday. We celebrated 192 years. Pastor Ishmael preached and was ordained. So that was a good Sunday. But if you can remember just one Sunday back from that, the Apostle Paul paints this picture of what it's like in the last days. What is it when people become unhinged? What is it about the characteristics of people when society is set on edge? And he gives this list. People be lovers of self and lovers of pleasure. And it was a pretty difficult list to listen to. And yet sometimes I think when we start looking around and naming the sins and naming societal decay. We can let our hair get on fire and say, What should we do? Well, the Apostle Paul tells you what you should do because he just listed out look, society might look like this. They may hold these vices in a way that they think are positive. But he just says, Timothy, the world can do what the world can do, but as for you, you followed my teaching. Sometimes all we need is just a good example. In the midst of a crazy world. There were a lot of families when I was growing up that they were all over the place. But here's the reality. I had a mom and a dad who set an example. And that was sufficient for me not to go all over the place. And so sometimes we ought not overlook the fact that if the world gets crazy, could you just be an example for somebody to follow? Could you just show them A different way to do life. And Paul here at the end of life points out particular things that Timothy is now following. It says, But you have followed my teaching. But by the way, Paul's teaching to Timothy wasn't in a classroom, it was on the road. It was an embodied teaching. My conduct. He didn't just listen to him talk, he watched him live. My purpose, the purpose of sharing the gospel, the purpose of being a missionary to the Gentiles, Paul's faith. Timothy was able to see Paul trust the Lord, his patience. Now, just to be honest, Paul is always patient. actually, there's a there's an episode in the book of Acts where Paul seems to kind of blow his top over John Mark. And Paul and Barnabas had a Well, a dispute. It says a no small dispute rose between the between the two. And so Timothy didn't just see the good stuff, he saw the bad stuff. But notice I think it's interesting here at Second Timothy, while at the the major dispute that Paul had in his missionary journeys is he couldn't get along, it seemed, or didn't want to get al g go with John Mark. Here at the end, literally one of the last words that Paul writes in Second Timothy four. It's not in my on not on the screen, but it says here in verse 11, only Luke is with me. In 2 Timothy 4, 11, only Luke is with me. You know what he says? Bring Mark. Guy who I'm gonna go along with? For he's useful to me in the ministry. Like one of his last words is a reconciliation with a guy early on. He said, Don't bring him. I don't take him on any more missionary journeys. He's like, you know, I I used to do long ago in a time far away. I did youth mission trips. Man, you always had one kid kid before you pulled out of the pulled out of the the parking lot. They were already like homesick and stomach sick on the back of the bus, you know. I mean, they wrecked the whole trip. Well, that was John Mark. Okay, I mean like literally, Paul and Barnum have set out. John Mark's I'm a little queasy. You know what I'm saying? And and Paul's like, this ain't gonna work. You know, he's like, I need to stop. I think my blood sugar's dropped. You know what I'm saying? And Paul's like, look, we're not gonna do this. And when they come back, Barnabas is like, I think we can work with him. And Paul says, I can't work with him. You know. And Paul goes on with Silas, and Barnabas goes another direction, all that reconciled. But you know what? Timothy saw that, his patience. He grew in it. His love. His endurance. But actually the example that probably had the most searing effect on Timothy and probably will have the most Searing effect on you and me if we have someone that we're watching, is their example under pressure. Because Paul doesn't Paul doesn't list his credentials, he could do that. He lists what happens in that early missionary journey and the events that happened around Timothy's hometown. Listen to the the places that he names. He names the these places are recorded in Acts 13 and 14. There's a place called Antioch. There are multiple Antiochs, by the way, in the first century. So Antioch of Poseidia, and then Iconium, and then Lystra. And Lystra was around the area where Timothy was from. So Paul is recording the first impression that Timothy had of Paul was not him lecturing in a classroom, but him on the mission. And so several things happened that kind of built up, which Paul then makes a universal point. Today we got to wrestle with a few points. Here's a big point in a moment. We're going to have to wrestle with you and I as American Christians. Well, here's some of the suffering that Paul experienced in Poseidon Antioch. This is Paul's strategy. He'd just go into a town. He'd know they'd be hostile to the gospel. He'd preach the gospel. Some people would believe, and other people get ticked off. I mean, that was the plan. And usually the people who got ticked off found a way to get Paul out of town. So that's what happened in Poseidon Antioch. Then he went down to Iconium. And again, Paul went in and preached the gospel. People would believe, the gospel would come with power, people would get ticked off, and they try to run him out of town. But sometimes the way this happened, the area and the geography that Paul traveled is pretty vast. But the town, since Paul was walking town to town, if you upset somebody enough, they they c literally come after you. And that's what was happening with Paul, because by the time he got to Lystra, he preached the gospel, and sometimes we say, Well, the society is so lost and we've become post-Christian. Listen, you don't you don't know a world as I mean Christianity wasn't even on the scene. When Paul preaches the gospel, these people don't know anything about Christianity because nothing is to be known. And when Paul preaches the gospel in Lystra, The people are so polytheistic and all the other things, they actually thought Paul and Barnabas were gods. And he says, No, no, no. Y'all are all messed up. Jesus is God, I'm not God. Get your get this right. Understand what the gospel message is. But then once they understand the gospel message so well, many people believe in Lystra and and the people who had been ticked off in Poseidon and Antioch and had been ticked off in Iconium, and now this big movement happens in Lystra. Do you know what they say? This guy's got to go. Paul. And they stone him. Now, stoning is a horrible, horrible experience. They tie you up, they s put a circle around, they give everybody rocks, and you throw it at them. And and you're knocked unconscious. And you're bleeding profusely. I mean, if a rock hits you upside the head, I mean you're in a bad shape. And they literally just drag Paul out like an old dead corpse and Well, that must be the end of that p end of that apostle. And the book of Acts is so I mean, Luke is Paul's good friend. He writes the book of Acts. And Luke, almost in a nonchalant way, just says after Paul got stoned and they basically left him out of town for dead, Paul just kind of gets up and goes to the next town. Beaten up, bruised, slapped around. And honestly, just think about this that that that's likely Timothy's introduction to Paul. Not the great teacher, but the stoned apostle. Like this the apostle who's basically hanging on by life, almost dead. And there's some people who think, did Paul actually die and God revive him? Who knows? But it was an ugly moment, and then Paul makes a universal principle. And I got a few principles today we need to wrestle with, but here's one we ought to wrestle with, because all of that is just. biographical background and then Paul makes a universal principle that he says applies to all people at all places at all times. You ready for it? All those who live now I'm gonna let me make sure I quote it correctly. Because I don't like to make a universal principle and I quote it correctly. In fact, here it is verse twelve in fact all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You say, well that must might just be Paul Is that also found in other places in the Bible? Sure it is. Jesus says in John 15, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before before it hated you. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. This is the question that I want you to think about today. All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. To what level has your Christian faith cost you anything? That's the question. I mean, I live a pretty comfortable life. You live a pretty comfortable life. But Paul makes a universal principle here. All those who desire not to live an obnoxious life, there are no rewards in heaven for being obnoxious. Okay? All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And mercifully in America at the moment that we don't experience persecution like the global church does. By the way, sometimes we ought to just kind of be shaken from our slumber to to be a to be aware that the global church still does suffer in terrible ways. I mean lots of times people say, well, why do we need to do mission work? I mean, you know, they can share the gospel as well as we can The context in which some people have to share the gospel, they need support. And so, first of all, let's just make note that the global church experiences suffering and persecution every day at levels in which we don't here in Appomattox. But all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. You say, Well, Rusty, what persecution do you suffer? Well, I'll be honest, not a lot. But I will say, I don't know if I say this as persecution, but I think it's going in the right direction that at least creates friction. And I think this is what we should expect. I I said last week at Pastor Ishmael's ordination service that something just changes when you say you are now officially ordained as a pastor to the ministry. It's like the air changes. People treat you different, conversation stops. I mean yesterday not yesterday. It's been a long weekend. What is it? Friday. I went to Railroad Day 'cause my boys wanted to go. I paid twenty five dollars for a wristband for each of them. There you go, I supported the local economy. And we could ride I rode scat. I wouldn't recommend that, okay? And the cherry the I wouldn't recommend it. But James was in it, he said, Dad, if you'll write it, I'll write it with you. And I said, Buddy, Dad doesn't want to write it. Dad's good. But I think if you write it to give me enough nerve. So I did it, okay? So after I recovered from scat, which was I mean a lot of this, you know, my forty four year old head was doing okay, but I rode scat and didn't scat, which was great. I just to be honest, I didn't need either. But while I'm I'm at the slides There was a guy that my boys are going down the slides. There was a guy pretty inebriated next to me. And and then some lady next to me goes, and he's talking like inebriated men talk. And and some lady goes, Well, you're standing next to the pastor. I could tell the guy was like, And then he's and then he said and then then all of a sudden he changed the way and he says, I should have known it. He has the haircut. So I don't know what that means either. So there's a lot of things going on that I can't quite understand. I got a drunk guy, I'm paid fifty bucks to ride a twirling machine and and and then I could tell from the rest of the time, you know, he's like Now you laugh. That grinds on you f after a while. Like every time you walk into rooms like preacher You know? It does. I mean they don't they don't always want you to come to their events. And and you say, Well, you know, you could have a job. Somebody find out you're an evangelical Christian and that no, no, no. Or they understand you hold to a particular you hold to a biblical conviction about the Bible or marriage or human sexuality or All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will experience persecution. And Jesus even in the Sermon on the Mount says, If everybody speaks nicely about you, whoa. And and I'll just have to say that the apostle Paul, his persecutions, some of it, I mean, you could have had an advisor. If Paul had an advisor, I wouldn't go to Lystra, because they're pretty ticked off from I c from Antioch and they're pretty ticked off at the other town. So maybe ought to just slide on down another direction. And Paul's like, I've been called to preach the gospel to all places. I go to the next place on the list, knowing. that probably difficulty comes. I I I'm just gonna let this hang out there for you. If there's no discomfort in your life because of your f because of your faith in Jesus Christ, then this principle is still in the Bible. And it it it is there. All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Let me say one other thing, I because I want to get to my second point. The best time for you to be an example is when you're under pressure and do it well. I've had some men in my life who have s spoken into my life and then I've actually seen some of those men go through really tough seasons. And watching them go through really tough seasons taught me a whole lot more than what they taught me when they weren't in a tough season, because I actually saw in tough seasons they practiced what they preached. And when Paul's encountered Timothy, we don't know if Paul leads Timothy to faith. It does not say Paul led Timothy to faith in Acts. I do think Paul led Timothy to faith because he calls him my son, which seems to be his spiritual son in the faith. So you have that going on. But that encounter when Timothy likely heard the gospel from Paul was after Paul had experienced significant persecution. And when Paul preached the gospel to Timothy, He knew it was a real deal because he didn't see a mentor who was living an easy life. He saw a man who wanted to live godly in Christ Jesus experience persecution. And that message landed because he delivered the message in the context of struggle. I do think that idea just needs to hang out there. Here's the second big idea. At some point in time, your mentors move on. I remember I had a guy in seminary. That was one of the guys that I thought I would stay on in seminary and learn under him. It was the spring semester in about two thousand and I don't know, seven, eight, s somewhere around that time period. And I I'll never forget he taught the class and at the end of the class he said, Well now I'm I'm moving and I'm going to California. I'm no longer teaching here at the seminary, and I thought, this is awful. And I remember catching him in the hallway and I said, Look, man, come on. You can't leave now. I'm finally just figuring it out. And I was gonna plan on staying here a little longer to to finish what I started. And never forget what he said to me in the hallway, which now has rung exactly right. He says, he says, Rusty, I've already given you the example, I've already given you the paradigm. Just keep going in that direction. And and I thought, that's a terrible answer. No, you stay around. And he said, Well, I'm not staying around, I'm I'm leaving, but I've given you the par paradigm, just keep going. And honestly, I've he gave me the paradigm and I've kept going for twenty years, and while I've missed him, I haven't don't feel like I've missed anything. And and what the apostle Paul is kind of saying, look, Timothy, you saw me for a long time, but I want you I want to leave you something when I'm gone. And this will be the ultimate paradigm for you to keep following Jesus. He gives him the scriptures. I want you to notice this second big idea to multiply. While we need mentors, more than mentors, we need a robust understanding of the Bible. We need to know the source and function of scripture in our lives. Verse 14 says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you learned it, and from childhood you have known the sacred scriptures which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scriptures inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. A few things. When you learn the scriptures, you learn the scriptures typically from somebody. Paul says it's important not to learn the scriptures just from anybody, but to learn the scriptures from somebody who's actually living the scriptures. And and notice here, he says, continue in what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you've learned it. And quite frankly, he learned it from several sources. He learned it from Paul. He also learned it from his mother and his grandmother, and their lives told that they had taken scripture very seriously. You say, What's the primary function of scripture? Well, when you open scripture to understand what it means, the first thing that it should instruct you in is it says here in verse fifteen, which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Salvation is the main message of the Bible. And so if you say, Well, what is the Bible about? Well, it's about Jesus and it's about salvation in him. And clearly we make that very plain here at the end of this service, which is not too long. From right now, you'll have an opportunity to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. That's what the Bible initially does. But listen carefully, Paul says there's a whole lot more to understanding the Bible than just salvation in Jesus Christ, although that's the main message. Now, there are several things we ought to note here. First of all, we get, in my opinion, one of the strongest statements in the Bible about the Bible, Second Timothy. 3.16. There's a lot of good 316 verses in the Bible. Everybody says, John 3.16, well, that's a good one. What about 2 Timothy 3.16? That's equally as good, in my opinion. Okay? Because 2 Timothy 3.16 overturns something that is kind of commonly accepted among many people. Not Christians, I hope, but commonly accepted. A lot of people say, Well, you know the Bible. What is the Bible? It's an ancient book where ancient people thought ancient thoughts about God. And if you read it, you can probably pick up on some of those ancient people who thought ancient thoughts about God and glean some good stuff. You ought to give it a look. That's a very common view. The only problem with that view is that's not what the Bible says. The Bible does not say it is ancient people who thought ancient thoughts about God, some of which you can glean some insight in, some of which you cannot glean some insight in. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all scripture Is given an inspiration of God. The word inspiration actually means God breathed. So this text, Second Timothy three sixteen, says that the source of Scripture is not an ancient my an ancient man's brain. The source of scripture is the mind of God. That all scripture is given as God as its source. And if God is the one who gives the scripture, that gives the scripture weight. This is not the word of man, it is the word of God. Big difference. And then if it speaks, when it speaks, it speaks authoritatively. A lot of people say, well, you know, the Bible it's good for salvation. Yes, it is able to make one wise unto salvation, but then we have here a fourfold description of what the Bible does in the life of the Christian. What does it do? It says, For all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. It's a sad day if all you got from the Bible is salvation. I mean, it's a good day because you you become a Christian. It's a sad day you left a lot on the table. Because what else does the Bible do? Well, first of all, it colors all of your life. It teaches you. It teaches you where you came from. It teaches you where you're going. It teaches you about your sin. It teaches you about grace in Jesus Christ. It it it also tackles all the hard problems. you know, Kyle and Zoe, we talked about how's a person to think about marriage? How's a person to think about work and vocation? How is a person to think about morality and sinfulness and vices? And how's a person to think about how they're to serve the community, how they're to be a citizen. The Bible gives you teaching on all of those areas. It colors the way that you think morally in every area. And if it explains all of that to you in the process of explaining it, in the process of teaching, this is what happens. You get rebuked. Not by me, but by the Bible. It is profitable. For teaching, for rebuking. 'Cause you know, I'll say something the Bible says, and then you'll think to yourself, Well I don't do that. You know we and then then there's this feeling sets in. You know what we call it? Conviction. And then you think, well, I'll probably change my ways. It's teaching, it's rebuking. You're like, well, if I'm doing this and I'm not supposed to be doing this, what should I do? Well, it it corrects you. This is what you should be doing. You're like, well. Okay. And you get an opportunity to say, Well, if if I'm not doing if I if if if it says this and now it's rebuked me because I'm not doing that, what should I do? I should do this. And then after that, it lets you to set new habits and trajectories in your life, training and righteousness. And Paul especially says for Timothy, so that the man of God may be equipped, ready for every good work. And lots of times we have so unequipped Christians precisely because the Bible does not function as the voice from heaven to you. I mean, we live in a day. It's my truth, it's your truth, there's no truth, we do whatever we want to do. Well the world might do that, but the Christians certainly can't. And I just want to end today with an appeal. For good or bad of what I have become as a person, there was one fundamental truth that set the trajectory for my life. at the 9 30 service my mother attends. So I live in this community, and anything I say, you can go check it out, because the people who saw it still live here. Okay? Maybe every pastor ought to have to do that. That's what I think. You know, not that I want to lie, but my goodness, I gotta make sure I remember it well. here's the truth. Now you may you a lot of people say, Well, you know, Rusty, I'm just not a big reader. And I know you like to study, but it's not me. Let me tell you something. If you'd have seen sixteen year old, seventeen year old Rusty, and by the way, some of my school teachers are here, they know. And this is this is a I'm not being critical of AppleMax Public Schools because I'm a product of them. Okay? I graduated high school. I'm pretty confident I didn't read in a single book all the way through. Okay? Sorry to bring that up. You know why? Because I was interested in baseball and I was interested in football. My favorite class was Weight Room. Okay? Yes, that was a class. I got an A in that one, okay? And I fell in a I've fallen apart since then, but at one point in time I had it, okay? And you say, why do you bring all that up? Because after I got called to ministry and God worked on my heart. I had a deep and profound conviction this is the Word of God. And my mom and dad were both amazed that after the first semester of college they were like, You read books? And I'm like, yeah. And it wasn't. It wasn't a pursuit of knowledge. It wasn't a pursuit of a degree. It was a pursuit of one central conviction. If this is the word of God, I should know it. Because if I'm going to teach it, I ought to go down deep and stay down long so I don't come up dry. And that led me, I mean, and so quite frankly, I just don't kind of want to hear it. From people who say, it's not my thing. I just don't know. No, no. It is not an ability thing. At least it wasn't for me. It was a conviction thing. Once I decided God is not silent, He has spoken. I wanted to give myself to the scriptures. And here's the deal it hadn't disappointed me one day. Every day there's an ever fresh word. And the deeper I go, there's more places to go. I haven't gotten bored yet, and I bore easily. You know, may I introduce to you today at the end of this message not only the Word of God but the best selling book of all time? You say, why is that the case? Because this book does more than inform. This does up this does more than inspire. This book is able to teach. And to rebuke and to correct and to train in righteousness. You know what we call the transformation. This can change you. I couldn't help but notice there were a lot of people doing a lot of things at Railroad Day yesterday. There was only one group of people giving out books. And you know who that group was? The Gideons. They'd given out Bibles. This book continues to transform. And challenge a world that's growing ever secular. But when the Word of God speaks, it comes with power. And people, whatever they think it is, when it comes with power and it has the ability to transform, because it's God's word and not our own, people's lives are changed. And I just commend to you don't just follow a mentor. That's good. Go as deep as you can in the scriptures. So that you would actually know what mentor to keep following. To say that's a person who's serious about God and his word, I want to follow them. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, the Bible is able to make you wise unto salvation. Salvation is a work of God, not a work of man. God gives you grace, He gives you a gift you don't deserve. And so if you're here today and you're not a Christian, Pastor Ishmael and I will be up here. We'll take a Bible, show you how you can be a Christian, how you can put faith in Jesus Christ. And then for you, Christian, you've got a lot of points to think about today. Your example, your persecution, your seriousness in the scriptures. May God the Holy Spirit apply his word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you. That we would be a church committed to multiplication, precisely because we're a group of people committed to living out the truthfulness of your word before others. And God, we ask that if a person here today who's not a Christian, that the scriptures would make them wise unto salvation and they would trust you. And God, for the Christian here today who hasn't spent sufficient time in your word. That God, that a call to the scriptures would be to hear what it has to say, to be rebuked by it, to be corrected by it, and ultimately to be trained in righteousness by it, so that that person can be equipped in every way for every good work. God, may you make us the type of people you want us to be, transform our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen.

2 Timothy 3:10–17 2 Timothy 3:16