Let's turn now to Paul's second letter to
Timothy, 2nd Timothy and chapter 1.
This is the last letter that Paul wrote
and he knows that he is going to
die soon and leave this world.
When he wrote 1 Thessalonians, he said, we
who are alive will be caught up.
He thought he would be alive when Jesus
comes again.
That's the way every Christian should live, with
this attitude of we who are alive.
Not they who are alive, but we.
Which means he expected to be alive for
the coming of the Lord.
But, fifteen years later, when he writes this
letter, he says, the time of my departure
is at hand.
He knows that he's not going to be
alive when Jesus comes and he's going to
depart the world before that.
And the theme of 2 Timothy, again, is
a true servant of God and his ministry.
The theme of these three last letters was,
as I said, Paul's burden to communicate to
another generation, Timothy and Titus, how to be
a good shepherd, how to be a true
servant of God.
And he points to his own life, always
Paul points to his own life.
When he spoke to the elders in Ephesus,
he does not say, remember the sermons I
preached to you?
No.
He says, remember the way I lived with
you.
And the same thing here, he tells Timothy,
he says, I thank God whom I serve,
verse 3, with a clear conscience, the way
my forefathers did.
He points to the way he himself lived,
I've lived all my life, I'm not perfect,
but to the best of my knowledge, as
my conscience has convicted me, I have tried
to live an upright life before God.
And then he speaks words of endearing words
to Timothy, because he was the one person
who brought great delight to Paul's heart.
Paul was very disappointed with many people in
many of the churches he established, because they
were not radical disciples.
He was disappointed with many of his co
-workers, because they did not live utterly, totally
for God.
And any servant of God will face the
same disappointment today.
If Paul faced disappointment in churches he planted,
you think we are going to be able
to do any better?
I planted churches, I'm disappointed with a lot
of things I see in those churches.
I've got co-workers, and I'm disappointed with
things I see in their co-workers.
But here and there you find one like
Timothy.
And such a person brings such delight to
the heart of a servant of God.
A man, Timothy, who did not seek his
own in anything.
And Paul was so excited that at least
there were a few like that, who could
carry on that ministry with the same devotion
and into another generation.
And that is what brought the greatest delight
to Paul's heart.
And that is always what brings the greatest
delight to the heart of any servant of
God, when he comes to the end of
his life.
That there are some others who can carry
on this ministry in the same spirit.
And Timothy was one of those rare ones.
And that's why he speaks in such an
endearing way.
He says, I always remember you in my
prayers, longing to see you.
I recall your tears.
That must have been the last time he
saw Timothy when they parted.
And I wish I could see you again.
But now Paul knows that he probably will
never see him again.
And then we see here how Timothy came
to this faith.
In verse 5, we see that Timothy's grandmother,
Lois, was the first person who came to
faith in that family.
And from the grandmother, the faith came down
to his mother, Eunice, as it is in
Greek, or Eunice here in English.
Faith was transmitted from the grandmother to the
mother and down to Timothy.
So, what did that grandmother give to Timothy's
mother?
Faith, not just knowledge.
And what did Timothy's mother give Timothy?
Faith.
That means as Timothy grew up, he saw
different situations where he saw his mother trusting
God.
Do your children see you trusting God in
difficult situations?
That's how you communicate faith to them.
And that's why God allows those difficult situations
in your home.
So that your children, when from a small
age, can see, my mummy trusted God when
she was in a difficulty.
When I was sick, my mummy laid hands
on my head and prayed for me, believing
that God would heal me.
Or my daddy did that.
And that little child grows up and goes
away from home one day, and when he
faces a difficulty or she faces a difficulty,
they do exactly what their mummy and daddy
did, trusting God.
That's how we communicate faith.
Now if you just tell stories to them,
they've got knowledge.
But it says here, they communicated the sincere
faith.
And little did Eunice know that this little
boy in her arms would one day be
a mighty apostle.
I don't know how long he was at
home, probably less than 20 years.
And how thankful she would have been later
on to see that this son of hers
grew up to be an apostle.
And it started with the mother.
As far as we know, in Acts chapter
16, we read that Timothy's father was a
Greek.
She had married an unbeliever.
It's a picture of a young girl who
marries perhaps a rich unbeliever.
But she's born again, and maybe she repented.
The father had no time for God, he
was a businessman.
We never read of him.
He had no interest in bringing up his
children, Timothy, in a godly way.
But the mother did such a tremendous job
that even though the father was an unbeliever,
this mother brought up her son to be
one of the finest apostles of the first
century.
What a challenge to mothers who have unconverted
husbands, as to what they can do for
their children.
Who knows?
But that little boy playing around with you,
four years old, may grow up to be
an apostle of Jesus Christ in India.
That depends on you, sister.
On how you take time to spend with
him and communicate faith to him.
Don't let him hear you criticizing other servants
of God and other believers.
It's one of the things I was very
careful about in my own home, that my
children should not hear me speaking evil of
other people in the church or other believers,
lest they grow up with that infection.
I didn't want my children to get any
type of infection.
Not tuberculosis, not leprosy, and not gossip about
other people.
None of these things.
They're all equally bad.
And gossip is the worst.
But if your children can get faith from
you, and they see that in the difficult
situations of life, you've given them the greatest
training at home for the Lord's service.
And the other thing that Timothy had, first
was this faith.
He got from his mother, which she got
from her mother.
See, generally, we see that first-generation Christians
are usually stronger in faith and devotion to
the Lord than second-generation Christians.
That's what we see all around us.
Those who come to the Lord themselves, that
means their parents were not believers.
Many of you sitting here, your parents were
not believers.
You came to a conviction yourself.
And your faith is strong.
Usually, people whose parents are believers and second
-generation, usually they are not so devoted and
don't have that much faith and devotion like
first-generation converts.
But Timothy was an exception.
So there can be second-generation believers also
who are as devoted and more devoted than
their parents.
And Timothy is a wonderful example to second
-generation believers whose parents are believers and who
grow up also equally or more devoted than
their parents to live for God.
But he had faith, and he not only
had faith, he also needed something else to
serve the Lord, and that was gifts, spiritual
gifts.
Always you see this balance in Scripture.
You need faith, and you need the gifts
of the Spirit.
And so he reminds him, I want to
remind you of the gift of God which
you received when I laid hands on you.
And that spirit that you received when you
were baptized in the Holy Spirit is not
a spirit of timidity.
So he says, I want you, verse 6,
to stir up that gift, kindle afresh.
That means don't let that fire which came
upon you that day, Timothy, die down.
See, that teaches us that God gives us
a gift, but we have to keep it
stirred and aflame.
In other words, God lights the fire, and
then we've got to make sure that we
keep fuel there, blow the flame, and keep
on stirring it up so that it's always
burning.
Don't think that just because God anointed you
once, you can just relax and say, well,
25 years ago God anointed me, and I'm
okay.
I've seen a lot of people who were
anointed even five years ago, there's nothing in
their life today.
So, a lot of people who had a
fire once upon a time, and they don't
have a fire today.
It's sad.
Young people who had a fire for God,
fire for souls, fire for living for God
and building the church, and it's gone.
Other things have come in and taken them
away.
They're after money now or after some directorship
or some comfortable life, and they've lost that
passion.
So, Paul tells Timothy, that fire that came
into you, kindle it afresh.
Keep it burning.
That's your responsibility.
And if you don't keep it burning, it'll
die out.
Keep it burning by keeping a good conscience.
Keep it burning by studying the word of
God.
Keep it burning by prayer and fasting and
seeking God.
Keep it burning by staying away from the
love of money.
Keep it burning by staying away from argument,
staying away from anything that will quench this
fire.
And he says, God has not given us
a spirit of fear.
Timothy was a very timid type of person.
Paul was a naturally fiery type of person.
Barnabas was a timid type of person.
Timothy was also a timid type of person.
And God puts the fiery man with the
timid man because both are required in the
church to balance out each other.
I've often thought that if Barnabas alone were
in a church, or let's take Paul and
Timothy, Paul the fiery firebrand and Timothy the
timid, gentle, gracious type of person.
It's an ideal combination for leadership in a
church.
If everybody was like Timothy, the church would
be just a bunch of wishy-washy compromisers.
And if everybody was like Paul, there'd be
nobody left in the church.
They'll all get discouraged and go away.
But when there are both, what a balance.
Grace and truth.
So if God gives you a co-worker
who's exactly the opposite of you, that must
be God's choice.
If God gives you a wife who's exactly
the opposite of you in temperament, that must
be God's choice.
Same in devotion to Christ and same in
desire to live for God, but perhaps opposite
in temperament.
Paul and Timothy had the same devotion to
Jesus, but their temperaments were completely opposite.
I thank God that God gives me co
-workers who are completely different from me.
Now you've seen me for three weeks, you
know what type of temperament mine is.
And you know what type of co-worker
I need to balance me out.
And God has given me people like that.
And I appreciate them.
You learn to appreciate people whom God gives
you, who are completely different in temperament from
you, but equally devoted to Christ.
So Paul tells Timothy here, God has not
given us a spirit of timidity and fear.
Don't let this natural timidity take over your
life.
Just like don't let your natural hardness take
over your life.
Both persons need to be careful.
So he says here, God has given us
a spirit of power, and of love, and
of discipline.
The spirit that God gives us is a
spirit of power, a spirit that makes us
love people, and a spirit that makes us
discipline ourselves in our life.
I want to tell you this, many times
in the New Testament you see, whatever experience
of the Holy Spirit you may have, and
whatever God does for you, if you don't
allow the Holy Spirit to discipline you in
your life, discipline you to teach you how
to spend your time, and how to spend
your money, and how to discipline your speech,
and discipline your life, you will never be
what God wants you to be.
The greatest servants of God in the history
of the church have been men and women
who allowed the Holy Spirit to discipline them
in their life.
They were disciplined in their sleeping habits, disciplined
in their eating habits, disciplined in their study
of the scriptures, disciplined in prayer, disciplined in
wanting to serve the Lord, disciplined in putting
God first above their earthly requirements.
God has given us the spirit of discipline.
Many, many people waste their life, satisfied that
they've got a baptism in the Holy Spirit,
they've got the right doctrine, and they think
everything will flow smoothly thereafter.
If you're not disciplined, I'll tell you now
itself, you won't make much out of your
life.
God has given us the spirit of discipline,
and he tells them, don't be ashamed of
me, I'm a prisoner.
It's very easy to be proud of Paul
when he's going around doing miracles, and to
join up with him.
But he says, now I'm a prisoner, and
a lot of people don't want to associate
with me because I'm in prison.
And you find Christians like that, they want
to associate with one man when he's very
popular, and the moment he becomes unpopular or
rejected, they want to pull out.
And almost everybody pulled out from Paul when
he became unpopular.
But those who stuck with him were the
ones whom God tested and found were faithful.
So sometimes God tests us to see whether
we'll stick with a man who's anointed, but
who's not popular.
But you recognize, and there God tests you
to see whether you're seeking your own, or
whether you're true to what you know God
has said in his word, and which Paul
stands for.
He goes on further to say in verse
12, this wonderful verse, he says, I suffer
many things, but I'm not ashamed, because I
know whom I've believed, and I've committed my
life to him, and I'm not ashamed, and
I believe that what I've entrusted to him,
he's able to guard until that final day.
And he tells Timothy further, don't ever lower
the standard.
Verse 13, what a great need for an
exhortation like that in our day.
Do not lower the standard.
If there is one exhortation I would give
to you, my brothers and sisters, it is
this.
Don't lower the standard that you see in
the scriptures, in order to bring more people
into your church.
If you have less people with a higher
standard, you have a better church, than if
you have more people with a lower standard.
It's true.
It's better to have three disciples than 300
compromising worldly Christians.
Any day I would choose three disciples.
I believe I can influence a village more
with three wholehearted disciples than with 300 compromisers.
Any day I believe that.
So retain the standard, which you heard from
me.
This is the great burden of every true
servant of God, that the second generation should
retain the standard.
Very often the second generation lowers the standard,
because they don't have the vision of that
first generation man of God.
It's happened throughout history.
You see the great denominational churches today, and
compare it with how it was in the
time of their founder.
I don't want to mention any names.
But I have often thought, if those founders
came to earth today, they would not join
the church which they founded.
Because those churches have lost the standards which
those people preached 200-300 years ago.
The standard is gone.
The external form is still there.
The name is there.
The doctrines are there.
But the life is gone.
The knowledge of God is gone.
This is always what happens in a second
generation.
And Paul was concerned.
He says, retain the standard.
And you'll never be able to do this,
he says, verse 14, without the Holy Spirit.
Guard this standard through the Holy Spirit who
dwells in us.
It's a treasure.
This is a sacred treasure.
Like I said the other day, here is
500,000 rupees given to you in cash.
You got to take it in train, in
the train to Delhi.
Make sure when you reach the other end,
there's 500,000 rupees there.
Not 300,000.
You need the Holy Spirit's help to guard
the standard and retain it.
And he says, you know, many people in
Asia, verse 15, everybody in Asia, that's Asia
minor, has turned away from me.
Paul in his last days experienced something that
Jesus experienced.
He's not talking about unbelievers.
Unbelievers were never with him.
Believers did not want to associate with Paul
now because he was not so popular.
He was in prison.
And they didn't want to get into prison
themselves.
He was in prison and released perhaps and
again going to be in prison.
He said we better keep a little distance
from him because he's in trouble now.
And everybody left him.
Including, he says, people like Phygelus and Hermogenes.
Maybe these were people who were probably good
co-workers of Paul and they just left
him.
But he says there's one man, I appreciate
verse 16, called Onesiphorus.
He was never ashamed of my chains.
He came to me in prison.
He publicly associated with me.
He was not ashamed to be known as
a friend of Paul.
Praise God for such people.
When he was in Rome, he eagerly searched
for me, found me.
And I believe the Lord will grant him
mercy in the final day.
You know, if you help in any way
a true servant of God, God will never
forget it.
Even a cup of cold water.
In the final day, you'll find mercy like
it says in verse 18.
We move on to chapter 2.
In chapter 2, he speaks about various characteristics
of a true servant of God.
He says be strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus.
And then he tells him about a number
of things that he needs to do.
A number of illustrations he uses to describe
a true servant of God.
First of all, verse 2, a servant of
God must be a faithful teacher of God's
word.
Whatever you heard from me, entrust to other
men, faithful men, who will be able to
teach others.
You must faithfully teach the third generation.
And they must be faithful to teach the
fourth generation.
See Paul's burden.
He's not just concerned about Timothy, the second
generation.
He says, Timothy, you must entrust it to
a third generation who should be able to
teach the fourth generation.
And make sure you choose faithful men, not
clever men, not intelligent men, but faithful men.
What is God looking for today?
Clever men?
No.
Faithful men.
Not rich men, not clever men.
Faithful men.
Timothy himself was a faithful teacher.
As a servant of God, number one, you
must be a faithful teacher of the word.
Number two, you must be a soldier who
does not entangle himself with the world.
A detached soldier.
That's a good soldier.
It says, a good soldier, verse 3 and
4, does not get entangled in all the
affairs of daily life.
Think of some soldier in the Indian army
fighting in the borders of Kashmir.
I mean, if he's got his mind always
on his property here and whether somebody is
stealing his property and what's all things happening,
he won't fight a good battle over there.
When he's in the battlefield with the enemy
in front of him, he's got to forget
about everything in this world.
He's probably going to lose his life there
and not even see his property.
So he's concentrating on the enemy.
And he says, that's all I'm interested in.
I've got to win this battle for my
country.
Do you want to serve the Lord?
You have to take your mind of all
these earthly things and say, I'm in a
battle with the devil.
And I've got to win this battle for
the Lord.
All my life, I'm in a battle.
And God will take care of all the
earthly things for me.
I'm not going to run after these earthly
things.
I don't have time for it.
God will take care of it.
I do the minimum necessary.
But my mind is set on the battle.
I want to ask you whether you're a
good soldier.
Many people are good soldiers when they are
single.
Once they get married and they have children,
their mind gets so taken up with so
many earthly things, that their effectiveness for God
decreases considerably.
If you are married in the will of
God, I believe that your effectiveness for God
should increase.
And your devotion to God should increase.
I brought up four children.
I was a full-time Christian worker before
I got married.
And I brought up four children.
They've all grown up and left home.
And I don't think at any time that
my family became more important than the Lord
for me.
I don't think, as far as I know,
that my preoccupation with my family and taking
care of their needs hindered me from doing
God's work.
I traveled just as much as when I
was single almost.
If God called me, I'd go.
And I've never lost out.
My children did not lose out.
My wife did not lose out.
If you move in the will of God,
you will not suffer.
They will not lose out spiritually.
They will not lose out materially.
God is a faithful God.
If you serve Him, you think He'll let
your family down?
Impossible.
So, be a good soldier.
Seek the kingdom of God first, and you
will see that all the other things your
family needs, God will provide them.
Don't worry.
If you live for Him, He will not
let you down.
And I'm only adding my weak testimony to
the testimony of many, many more faithful servants
of God through 2,000 years who can
say that better than I can.
It's true.
If you honor Him, He'll honor you.
So, don't get entangled with the affairs of
everyday life.
The third picture he uses here is of
an athlete.
A true servant of God must be an
athlete who runs according to the rules.
A truthful athlete.
That means he does not cheat.
He does not do something wrong when nobody's
watching.
To use an illustration, there is an event
in the Olympic Games called the 50-kilometer
walk.
That means you've got to walk.
You're not supposed to run.
Now, 50 kilometers is such a huge distance
that I can imagine that somewhere along the
way, when people are not watching, this fellow
is tempted to run a little bit so
that he can catch up.
But there are hidden video cameras and all
nowadays.
And the fellow comes first and he's disqualified.
I've come across cases like that.
He said, no, you know, on the 25th
mile, we saw you running a little bit.
So, even though you came first, you're out.
So, there must be no cheating in the
life of a servant of God.
No area in his life, if it's a
50-kilometer walk or a 50-year walk,
at no point in that time must he
violate the rules.
He should not say, well, this is for
the Lord's work.
I have to tell this lie.
Brother, you never have to tell a lie
for the Lord's work.
For the devil's work, you have to, but
not for the Lord's work.
If you cheat somewhere along the line, oh,
we have to fiddle around with these accounts.
Otherwise, we'll get into trouble with this heathen
government.
You have to fiddle around with no accounts
in the Lord's work.
We can be absolutely honest.
We don't have to tell any lies.
If we suffer, we suffer.
I would rather suffer from men who persecute
me for speaking the truth and keeping my
accounts faithfully, than suffer from God one day
for telling a lie.
Any day.
So, we must be athletes who keep the
rules.
Then, what's the next one?
Fourth, we must be like, verse 6, hard
-working farmers.
You know how a farmer is?
He sows a seed, and he doesn't come
next morning to see if the crop has
come.
He waits.
He plants a coconut tree.
He doesn't come even after six months to
see if the coconuts have come.
It takes a long time, but it'll come.
Meanwhile, he waters it, puts fertilizer.
Hard-working farmer.
Farmers have to be hard-working people.
Otherwise, they won't get a crop.
And he says, naturally, the more hard-working
the farmer is, he deserves his share of
the crops first.
If ten farmers were working in a field,
the man who worked hardest must get the
first share of the crops.
And a servant of God must be like
a hard-working farmer in his study of
the Word, in his serving people, diligently watering,
watering, watering.
And years later, he has the joy of
seeing these people grow up not only to
be believers, but to be servants of God
themselves.
That's the tremendous joy I have had in
the last few years, to see people who
have grown up as ordinary believers now grow
up to be servants of God themselves.
And then, he says further.
In between, he says, remember Jesus Christ, verse
8, at the seat of David.
And in between, he says in verse 7,
Please think about all that I'm saying.
May the Lord give you understanding of all
that I'm saying.
Think about these things.
These are illustrations, but you need to think
about them and see how they apply to
your life.
And then, he says that a servant of
the Lord must be, verse 15, a diligent
workman.
He must be a very hard-working laborer
when it comes to the Word.
A diligent workman who rightly, accurately handles the
Word of Truth.
One who can present himself to God as
a hard-working workman.
Lord, you've got to use me because I've
spent many hours studying your book.
Can you say that?
Or do you say, Lord, use me?
Why should he use you?
Have you spent many hours accurately trying to
understand God's Word?
Or you just sit there and say, Lord,
I wish I could speak like that man.
You'll never be able to speak like that
man.
Because you're not hard-working when it comes
to God's Word.
You read a lot of other things most
of the time.
You don't have time to study the Word.
See, God is not a rewarder of lazy
people.
Sometimes, children come to me at examination time
and say, Uncle, please pray for me.
I say, did you study for your examinations?
If you didn't study, my prayer is not
going to help you.
Because a farmer who does not sow seed
in sowing time and harvest time says, Brother,
please pray, I'll get a good harvest.
I say, you won't get a harvest.
So, in the same way, you want God
to use you, but you're not diligent to
study the Word of God.
You can't be used by God.
It's not possible.
In between, I want to just look at
these things which he mentions here in verse
11 to 13.
He says, if you want to live with
Christ, you've got to die with Him.
If you want to reign with Christ, you
must endure with Him here on this earth.
If you deny Him here, He will deny
you.
If you're faithless, He is faithful.
He cannot deny Himself.
Remind people, verse 14, of these things.
Charge them in the presence of God, verse
14.
Not to argue about words.
I don't think there are any two books
in the whole Bible that speaks so much
about avoiding argument, avoiding disputes about words as
1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.
The number of times Paul says to Timothy,
avoid arguments, avoid wrangling about words.
And do you know how many Christian preachers
there are today who are arguing with other
people about words?
The very thing Paul said, don't do it.
I've had people come to me to argue
about a doctrine.
And the first thing I need to sense
when I listen to that man is, is
he trying to understand the truth because he's
not sure, because he wants to live a
godly life?
Or is he just trying to argue with
me to prove that I'm wrong?
And if I sense that he's really desiring
a godly life, I'm willing to spend six
hours with him or more explaining to him
the scriptures.
But if I find that he's only come
to convince me that I'm wrong, I stop
in about two minutes.
I say, brother, I don't want to argue.
Let's talk about cricket.
Let's see what the score is or something
like that, change the subject.
Because I see he's getting agitated.
And I, you see, if we talk about
cricket and the Indian cricket team, we are
united.
We both want India to win.
So we can talk about something like that
instead of this doctrine over which he's got
so much heat.
So be careful that you don't get into
argument with somebody who's heated.
Don't make him sin.
I don't want to make people sin.
That's why I changed the subject to cricket
or something.
Because he can't sin when he's talking about
cricket.
But he talks about this doctrine from the
Bible, he'll sin.
The way he talks about it.
So don't get into arguments with words.
It's a very important exhortation I would give
you.
Okay, again in verse 16, he repeats again.
Avoid worldly chatter, empty chatter, because this will
all lead to ungodliness.
Please remember, my brothers and sisters, all worldly
chatter, gossip and all types of worldly conversations,
they will lead to ungodliness.
Your speech, it says it's like gangrene, verse
17.
Do you know what gangrene is?
When sometimes people have diabetes and they get
a wound in their foot and it doesn't
heal, gangrene sets in.
And the doctors try and try and try
with medicines, antibiotics and it doesn't heal.
Finally the doctor says, I'm sorry but I
have to cut off your foot.
Gangrene is such a terrible thing.
It just spreads.
And there's no cure for it except cutting
off the foot.
Sometimes you have to cut off half the
leg.
Because the gangrene is spreading.
And he says, do you know what's the
gangrene in the Christian life?
It's this type of argument and worldly conversation.
Sit and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,
all types of useless things.
It's like gangrene.
It will just spread and destroy your life
and destroy everybody else's life.
Cut it off.
It's very, very important.
And he says, people like Hymenaeus, verse 17
and Philetus, they went into this type of
worldly chatter and now they've gone astray from
the truth altogether.
They say the resurrection has already taken place.
And they are upsetting the faith of some
people.
But he says, those who are firmly founded
on God's foundation, see God's foundation has got
two things written on its seal.
On the downward side, now let's look at
the upward side, God's side.
You know there's a great argument in Christendom
about what's commonly known as Calvinism and Arminianism.
Whether once saved, always saved, or you can
be lost after you're saved.
Eternal security or not eternal security.
There's this argument.
What's the answer?
The answer is in both.
There's truth in both.
And if you ask me, I hold both
views.
Because both are in scripture.
You can't put away one.
God is sovereign and He chooses.
At the same time, we need to pursue
after Him and follow Him.
Both are true.
He holds me and I hold Him.
It says here, the foundation of God, from
God's side, if you look at it, He
knows everybody who is a child of God.
The Lord knows those who are His.
Eternal security.
That's right.
But if you look at it from the
underside, which is the side we can see,
how do you know that a man is
a disciple of Jesus?
I'm sorry, I can't see it from God's
side.
If I could look into the book of
life, I'd tell you whether you're eternally secure.
But I can't.
I look at it from the underside and
what do I see?
If you name the name of the Lord,
you must stay away from sin.
If you stay away from sin, I say,
brother, you are eternally secure.
So you see, both truths are there in
the seal of God on His foundation.
There is Calvinism and Arminianism.
Both are there.
The Lord knows those who are His.
He has sovereignly selected them.
And the one who names the name of
the Lord must himself choose to stay away
from wickedness.
So, God holds me and I hold Him.
Okay.
Now we are looking at the characteristics of
a true servant of God.
A faithful teacher.
And he must be like a good soldier.
A truthful athlete.
A hardworking farmer.
A diligent workman.
And now, verse 20 and 21, he must
be a sanctified vessel.
A holy vessel.
That's another picture used of a servant of
God in this chapter.
A vessel who cleanses himself.
Now there are two types of cleansing spoken
of in the New Testament.
One is the cleansing of 1 John 1,
7 and 1, 9.
The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all
sin.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and righteous to cleanse us.
That is God cleansing me from the guilt
of my past life.
I can't do that.
Only the blood of Jesus can do that.
But there is another cleansing which I have
to do myself.
That's here in verse 21.
A man cleanses himself.
It's two sides of a coin.
God cleanses my past life and I cleanse
myself from the things I see in my
life now.
For example, if I find that I've got
the habit of cracking jokes in a way
that hurt other people.
Do you have that habit?
Then ask.
Don't ask God to remove it.
Say, Lord, I'm going to get rid of
it for my life.
I have to cleanse myself.
Lord, I have the habit of being a
busybody in other people's matters.
I want to get rid of it.
A lot of believers are busybodies in other
people's matters.
They want to find out who's getting married
to who, who's pregnant and who's having a
baby.
I say, I'm not interested.
I'm not interested in all that.
I've got enough to do fighting the devil
instead of finding out who's getting married to
who and who's having a baby.
It's none of my business.
And Lord, cleanse me.
No, I must cleanse myself.
I must stop being interested in these things.
And if a man cleanses himself, he will
be a vessel sanctified, useful to the master.
Brother, sister, do you want to be a
vessel useful to the master for every good
work?
I want to be like that for many,
many years.
It's been the passion of my life.
Lord, I want to be a vessel useful
to you for every good work that you
can do with my one earthly life.
Please have me.
I have such a short life on earth.
Maybe I live 70, 80, 90 years.
I don't know.
But every year of that life must count
for you.
I must be useful for you.
Then the Lord says, cleanse yourself.
Look at your life and see the things
that are useless.
Let your life be one continuous cleansing.
I'm cleansing myself even today.
Anything that I find, well, that's no use
for God's work.
I want to cleanse it away.
That's not good for a servant of God.
I want to cleanse it away.
If you're serious like that, you will be
a vessel useful to the master.
There are a lot of vessels that are
not very useful to the master.
And he compares it to the different type
of vessels in a house.
There are vessels made of wood.
You know, boxes, wooden boxes, crates in which
we pack things.
Vessels made of earth where we store water.
And then there are some other vessels of
gold and silver which you find in the
cupboards usually.
We don't use them so much.
But if there's a fire in your house,
which vessel will you go and run away
with?
Which will you take out of the house?
I'm sure you won't take all those cardboard
boxes and the earthen vessels.
You'll run to the cupboard to take the
gold and silver vessels.
Those are the ones Jesus is coming for.
When the world is going to be on
fire, he's going to take his golden and
silver vessels.
You are an earthen vessel.
Can you become a golden vessel?
Sure.
Cleanse yourself from everything.
An earthen vessel can become a golden vessel.
Don't think of usefulness alone.
Many people say God is using me.
Yeah, in your house you may use the
cardboard box more than you use the golden
vessel, right?
If you got a golden cup, how often
do you use it at the dining table?
But cardboard boxes and earthen vessels you use
a lot.
But usefulness is not the thing.
Which has got value?
Are you worried about usefulness?
Or are you worried about your value?
Your spiritual value to God.
That's more important than saying God is using
me.
God uses even the devil.
You know that?
The devil sent a thorn into Paul's flesh
and God used it.
Doesn't he use that?
The devil sends sickness to people and God
uses it.
He uses the devil.
He uses many people like that.
He used Balaam.
He used Solomon to write scripture and then
he went to hell.
So, don't say God used me.
There are people who say, Lord, I prophesy
in your name.
I did this in thy name and finally
they are rejected.
Being used by God is not the main
thing.
What is your value?
Are you a golden vessel?
And lastly, a servant of God, verse 24
to 26, must be a gentle counselor.
Gentle in the way he speaks to people.
Again, he says, not arguing, not quarrelsome.
You cannot be a servant of God, verse
24, if you are quarrelsome.
Refuse, verse 23, foolish speculations.
So, there are a number of things.
One more thing I just want to mention
in verse 22.
If you want to cleanse yourself, one of
the first things you got to run away
from is youthful lusts.
Even a man like Timothy, who was probably
40 years old or 45, I don't know.
Do 45-year-old people need to run
away from youthful lusts?
A wholehearted brother like Timothy.
Paul tells Timothy, you got to run, brother.
Don't think because I am 45 years old,
I won't be tempted.
You got to run.
You got to turn away and run.
Don't allow these things to drag you down
and destroy your ministry.
And pursue after righteousness with those who call
on the Lord from a pure heart, verse
22.
In other words, seek fellowship with those who
desire purity.
That's what will help you to run away
from sin.
Our best friends on earth must be those
who desire purity with all their hearts.
There are many believers, but among all those
many believers whom I fellowship with, my best
friends must be those who desire to live
a godly life.
The others, their standard is lower.
They are not so interested in godliness.
They want to go and watch movies and
various things like that.
Maybe born again, I don't know.
But those are not the type of people
I want to spend most of my time
with.
I want to spend most of my time
with those who desire godliness.
Those who call on the Lord from a
pure heart.
You say, how do you know what's in
the heart?
Well, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks, the Bible says.
So you know what's in a man's heart
by the things he talks about.
If he's always talking about the stock market
and various things that he can buy for
his house, you know that's what's in his
heart.
And you see another man who's talking about
the Lord, you know that's what is in
his heart.
So I want to look for people, not
who can tell me how to make money
on the stock market or how I can
buy better clothes in some place.
I want to fellowship with those people who
can tell me more about Jesus, what they
have discovered about Jesus from the scriptures.
I'm so much in love with Jesus, even
after 41 years, that I love to talk
to people who talk to me about Jesus,
my beloved bridegroom.
That's the secret of serving the Lord.
Those who call on the Lord out of
a pure heart.
Be one like that.
Be gentle in correcting people, it says in
verse 25, so that they can be delivered
from the trap of Satan.
And then chapter 3, he speaks about being
faithful in the last days.
There's a sense in which the last days
began on the day of Pentecost.
In Acts chapter 2, Peter says, this is
what Joel prophesied, it shall come to pass
in the last days, I'll pour out my
spirit on all flesh.
That started on the day of Pentecost.
Now, in 2000 or nearly 2001 now, we
are not in the last days, we are
in the last minutes.
Last minutes, probably in the last seconds.
How much more these things will be true.
Men will be lovers of themselves.
Now the interesting thing is, he's not talking
about worldly people.
Worldly people have always been lovers of themselves
in the last days and the first days.
Lovers of money, boastful, arrogant.
This is all true of worldly people in
all centuries.
But here he's talking in verse 5, about
those who pretend to be believers.
Who claim to be believers.
That means they've got a form of godliness.
They've got the right doctrine.
These are evangelical Christians.
Whenever it speaks about the form, the form
of godliness is the doctrine.
The doctrine, that means they hold on to
the form.
You know like a body has got a
form.
10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, 2 ears.
We can say this is the form.
If you have only 8 fingers, those are
people who don't have all the doctrines.
10 fingers means all doctrines correct.
But there's no life in this body.
What's the use?
That's the condition of a lot of evangelical
Christians.
Their doctrines are all correct.
10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, 2 ears,
but there's no life.
They have a form of godliness, that means
their doctrine is all correct, but they don't
have power.
They can't get up and live for God.
Such people, who have all their evangelical doctrines
right, who can sign any doctrinal statement and
join any evangelical fellowship, they are lovers of
themselves.
Are you one of those?
Glorying in the fact that you're not a
liberal.
Your doctrine is correct.
You've got 10 fingers, not 5 fingers like
the liberals.
You've got 10 toes, not 5 toes like
them.
You've got 2 eyes, not 1 eye like
them.
You're glorying in the fact that all your
doctrines are correct.
But, are you a lover of yourself?
Do you live for yourself or do you
live for God?
Are you a lover of money?
Second question.
Are you boastful?
Are you arrogant in the way you behave
with junior brothers and sisters?
Are you a gossiper?
Speaking evil of others?
Are you disobedient to parents if you're a
child at home?
Or dishonoring to parents?
When you leave your home, you don't have
to obey your parents, but you still have
to honor them.
Are you ungrateful to people who do good
to you?
This is all ungodliness.
Are you unholy?
Are you unloving?
Are you a person who cannot be reconciled?
People try to bring you together with that
person with whom you have a fight, but
you're stubborn and you will not yield your
point of view.
Are you a malicious gossip?
Are you one without self-control?
Brutal, hater of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited?
Are you a lover of pleasure and comfort
more than a lover of God?
If you love comfort more than you love
God, I'll tell you right now, you can
forget about serving God.
You cannot love comfort more than God and
serve Him.
That's completely out of the question.
And yet people who do all these things
have the correct doctrine.
They say we are born again.
Do you know there are multitudes of people
like that in the world today?
Who got the right language, the right form,
but they haven't been delivered from self-centeredness
and living for themselves and living for the
world and living for money.
And the Lord, Paul tells Timothy, avoid such
people.
Why should you avoid such people?
Because you'll get infected.
And such people are the ones who go
into households and captivate weak women.
You know there are some preachers who only
like to preach to women.
Crazy.
Because they know they can convince them.
And some of these women just sit and
they like to listen to these preachers.
They go visiting homes when only the women
are there.
It says here.
And capture them, get their money.
And these women are people who keep on
listening to umpteen preachers.
They go to this doctrine, that doctrine, this
church, this special meeting.
They never can understand the truth.
It's sorry.
Not all sisters are like that.
There are some excellent godly sisters in the
church too.
But it says there are some women like
that and some preachers like to go for
them.
Be careful.
Don't be an effeminate preacher like that.
Be a man of God.
And he says about people who oppose the
true servants of God.
He says there are people like Janice and
Jambres who are Pharaoh's magicians who oppose Moses.
And there are people like that who will
oppose you, who have all this form of
godliness.
One day God will judge them.
Their folly will be manifest to all.
But he says in contrast to all these
people, verse 10 and 11, you have seen
my life, Timothy.
You have seen how I lived.
You have seen my conduct, verse 10, my
purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my
perseverance, my persecution, my suffering.
Was Paul boasting?
No.
Sometimes we have to give our testimony to
people in order to challenge them.
And Paul had to give a testimony to
contrast himself with other servants of God who
were crooks, who claimed to be servants of
God.
And then he says, but I'm persecuted.
I'm imprisoned.
Because all those, verse 12, who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
But these evil men and deceivers, they'll go
from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But you don't follow them.
You follow what you learned from childhood.
And then we come to that wonderful passage
about Scripture which we thought of when we
began these studies.
That all Scripture, he's telling Timothy, give yourself
to the study of Scripture.
Because in Scripture you have the breath of
God.
The same Holy Spirit who fills you is
the one who wrote this book.
Study it.
Let it teach you.
Let it reprove you.
Let it correct you.
Let it train you in righteousness.
And let it equip you to become a
man of God ready to do every good
work.
And then his concluding words in chapter 4.
He says, I'm charging you in Jesus name.
Preach the word.
Verse 2.
Be ready always to preach the word.
When you feel like it and when you
don't feel like it.
When it's convenient and when it's not convenient.
You must always be ready.
And when you preach the word, reprove people,
rebuke people.
It's not always gentle.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.
It's not just consolation always.
Because the time will come when people will
not be willing to listen to hygienic doctrines.
Sound doctrine means hygienic, holy, health giving doctrine.
The time will come when they want to
have their ears tickled by preachers who just
make them happy and collect their money.
And they will not be interested in listening
to solid teaching on holiness.
You go to a Christian book shop today
and you'll find such a lot of books
which are just trash.
Just somebody's testimonies and not solid teaching that
leads to holiness.
All about experiences and various type of things
which don't lead you to a godly life.
That time has already come.
Those are the only books that sell very
often.
And people go for those things.
Those are the books that sell in millions.
People don't want teaching that leads to a
godly, holy life.
He says that time will come.
So you better make sure that whenever you
get the opportunity, preach the word.
Wherever you get the opportunity, go and preach
God's word.
And endure hardship and do the work of
an evangelist.
You're called to be an evangelist, go and
win souls.
Don't waste your time with other things.
And he says my time has already come.
I'm going.
I'm thankful as I look back over my
life.
Paul says in verse 7, I fought against
the devil with all my heart.
I fought against my lust in my flesh
with all my heart.
I have finished the course that God kept
for me.
He had a particular ministry for me and
I finished it.
All the places he wanted me to go
to, I went.
Whether it was walking or shipwreck or anything,
I determined to go where God wanted me
to go.
And I've kept the faith.
I've not compromised on the doctrine.
And because of that in future, God has
laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which he'll give to me and all those
who love his appearing.
But, Demas was with me up until recently.
Verse 10, now he's deserted me.
Going after this present evil world.
There are many people who fall away.
14, Alexander the coppersmith has done me much
harm.
The Lord will repay him in the final
day.
Be on guard against him because he may
oppose you also.
Everybody deserted me in the courtroom.
Verse 16, when I was taken to court,
everybody got scared and ran away.
But the Lord stood with me.
Verse 17, and saved me.
And I believe that until his time comes,
he will deliver me from every evil deed.
And even from death.
But when his time comes, he'll take me
safely to his heavenly kingdom.
So that's how he finishes.
His closing words.
We thank God for the example of such
a godly servant who kept the faith till
the end.
Fought the good fight.
Finished his course.
An example for all of us to follow.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the example
of your servant whose challenge comes down to
us through 20 centuries.
Help us to follow his example in our
own life, we pray.
In Jesus' name.