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