If you have a look at 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, it begins by saying,
Thou therefore endure hardness.
The title for the sermon tonight is Endure Hardness, Endure Hardness.
Now, of course, let's remind ourselves the Apostle Paul is writing to Pastor Timothy here.
He's asking, Pastor Timothy, you've got to endure hardness, okay?
Just a quick reminder.
We know that St. Timothy is one of the last epistles, probably the last epistle that Paul has ever written.
And we know he's coming to the end of his life.
Paul is suffering.
Paul is going through great difficulties.
And he's trying to encourage Timothy that you too are going to go through great difficulties.
You too are going to go through hardness, but you've got to endure.
You've got to keep going, keep serving the Lord, keep remaining faithful unto the Lord.
And so I do believe this endure hardness, this thought of enduring hardness is one of the key things that we can look through this entire chapter.
So let's start there in verse number one.
2 Timothy 2, verse number one.
Thou therefore, my son, be strong.
So if we're going to endure hardness, number one, we've got to be strong, right?
Be strong.
Now, before I keep reading, I just want you to think about, you know, what is it that a pastor or what is it that a Christian person ought to be strong about, you know?
Now, this is not teaching.
You know, unfortunately, there are some Christians that think, you know, this is telling me that I can be crude.
I can be obnoxious.
You know, I can just upset people and, you know, just throw out the truth bombs and just offend as many people as I want.
And that's me being strong.
No, wrong.
You've got it all wrong.
Notice what is the strength in?
It's not strength in this flesh.
It's not the strength to just be offensive, as offensive as you desire to be, you know?
That's stupidity.
That's not where the strength is here.
This is out there for my son.
Be strong in what?
In the grace.
Be strong in grace.
Be very gracious.
Understand there are challenges.
Understand there are tribulations.
There are difficulties.
Understand, you know, people are going to lose faith.
They're going to, you know, lose the zeal for the Lord, that they're going to get into heresies.
Things are going to fall apart sometimes.
You just got to continue being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Boy, that's a big tall order, isn't it?
Christ Jesus, we know he was a very gracious person.
You know, Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, walk this earth, the creator of all things, brethren, walk this earth.
And he had to deal with sinners everywhere he went.
And we know that God hates sin.
And yet Christ was able to function, you know, live some 33 years, do his ministry for some three years or so, you know, amongst sinners.
And instead of destroying people, he came to save.
He came to realize, look, these are lost.
These people need a shepherd.
These people need guidance.
These people need the gospel.
These people need Christ.
And brethren, that's the key thing for a pastor.
It's about being strong, yes.
How can we endure hardness by just being obnoxious and an idiot, offending as many people as you're trying to aim for?
You know what?
I hope I don't offend anybody.
I'm telling you the truth.
I hope I'm not just out there offending everybody, but I know if I'm just preaching God's truth faithfully, it's going to offend.
But here's the thing, even with those that are offended, I'm supposed to be gracious.
I'm supposed to understand.
Look, it takes time for people to get on the same page.
It takes time for people to get the right doctrine.
It takes time for people to understand even the simplicity of the gospel in order to preach in the gospel and lead them to Christ.
And so this great strength that is needed is within grace, the same grace that is found in Jesus Christ.
Let's keep going.
Verse number two.
And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, so all the things that Paul has been preaching, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
And so, look, as a pastor, I'm not here, as I said before.
When did I say this?
What sermon was it?
I can't remember.
I can't remember if I was preaching my new life or, bless it all, it's all getting mixed up now, okay?
But I was preaching, you know, we're not here to reinvent the wheel, all right?
We're here to keep teaching the same sound doctrines that have been passed down before, right?
The Apostle Paul and his epistles, he's teaching great doctrines.
He's preached great sermons.
Timothy has received a lot of great teaching from Paul.
Hey, but now it's time for Timothy to pass that on to other faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
You know, this coming Sunday, I won't be able to preach for you, I'll go into that later on at the end of the sermon.
But brother Jason, brother Jason up there is going to be preaching for you guys Sunday morning.
And look, you know, this is the point, you know, I'm not, you know, church ought not to be this one-man show.
Now, of course, I'm the pastor, you know, I definitely should be doing the majority of the preaching.
But my goal is that I would pass down good teaching, good sound doctrines, that I would help you guys grow in the knowledge of the Bible,
and then for others to take the same great words and teach others also.
And so I'm always encouraged when there are men, whether up there at New Life Baptist Church or down here in Sydney,
that desire to preach, the desire to take God's word and put the best foot forward and teaching God's word.
Look, and it's not always for people, you know, some people say, well, I'm not going to be a pastor one day.
Hey, that's fine.
Hey, but are you a faithful man?
Are you someone that loves the Lord and you want to remain faithful to Him?
If you're a faithful man, hey, put your hand up, pastor, one day I'd like to preach.
Hey, it may not be this year, maybe next year once I sort of get a bit of practice.
Hey, if you ask me for some tips, some help, I'll try to help you along as well, right?
Amen.
But it's important that we ensure that we pass down.
I'm not here with secret information, only information you can learn from Pastor Kevin Tepulveda.
I want to pass down, you know, anything I know about the scriptures, I want to make sure that you guys know,
that you guys are being taught and that you guys take the same things and teach others also.
And so we're looking at, you know, enduring hardness.
And I want you to notice that we start this hardness, this sort of hardness begins with the teacher, you know, being sound, being a teacher.
But then we get to verse number two, sorry, verse number three, which says, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
So we've gone from being a teacher to now a soldier.
And that's what I pass all to be a teacher, but also a soldier.
What's a soldier for?
Going to war, right?
A soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ, putting on the armor, the armor of God, right?
Putting that on and fighting the spiritual battles.
But a way to notice this, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Are we to go to war?
Are we to fight?
Are we to fight for the faith?
Absolutely, brethren.
But you know what, something that opened my eyes, I just, I wasn't, I didn't realize that this was in the heart of so many Christians.
That, you know, as we've gone through this COVID world, how many people actually want to fight in this world?
They actually want to fight carnal battles.
They want to get out there protesting.
They want to get out there and causing, you know, fighting, you know, the new normals, fighting the new powers of this earth.
You say, Pastor Ken, but we should be fighting for these things, aren't we?
Aren't we soldiers for the truth?
Yes, we are soldiers for the truth, but we're soldiers for the truth of God's word.
We're not soldiers for every little thing that, you know, is a lie in this world.
Otherwise, you're going to just waste your entire time chasing other things that have nothing to do with the truth that God wants us to be fighting for.
Because notice verse number four, notice this.
It says, no man that warth, so should we go to war?
Yes.
Should we be soldiers for Jesus Christ?
Yes.
But no man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life.
And you know what?
COVID world has shown me there are just too many Christians that want to get entangled with the affairs of this life.
They think, well, I'm a soldier for Jesus, then I've got to fight against, you know, the pharmaceutical companies.
I'm going to fight against the corrupt politicians.
Hey, look, these are affairs of this world, Reverend.
Okay, we're called to be soldiers for Jesus Christ.
Let's keep going there.
Knowing that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.
Reverend, who has chosen us to be a soldier?
Jesus Christ.
Do you want to please Jesus in your spiritual warfare?
Absolutely.
So if you want to do that, don't entangle yourself with the affairs of this life.
You know, keep your focus on being a faithful soldier for God's word, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the words of God, for the sound doctrines that we preach.
That's what you ought to commit yourself to and not be overly concerned with all the disaster that this world gets up to.
That's not our battle, brethren.
And, you know, Jesus Christ says, I just want to read this to you.
In John 18, 36, Jesus Christ says, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.
Reverend, what are you going to fight about?
Are you going to fight for this world?
This world that we live in is not the kingdom of Christ, brethren.
Hey, one day his kingdom is coming and we're going to rule and reign with Christ, amen.
This is not his kingdom.
This world, you know, Australia, this is not the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
It says, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Jesus Christ says, my kingdom is not from here.
This is not my world.
This is not my kingdom.
You know, this is a wicked world that we live in.
You know what?
I'm not going to entangle myself with the affairs of this life.
I'm going to choose to be a soldier for the kingdom above, for the heaven that is above.
That's what we're fighting to fight for, brethren.
Not to get, you know, to get distracted with this whole world.
Hey, this world's going down the toilets.
This world's waxing worse and worse.
And you know what?
I can't stop that.
But what I can do is preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring more people into the kingdom that does belong to Jesus Christ.
Now, look, I don't want to, you know, I've got an entire sermon in the Perfect Man series.
Entire sermon dedicated to this one verse.
Not entangling ourselves with the affairs of this life.
So I'm not going to go too much more into it, okay?
But let's keep going.
Verse number five.
It says, and if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
So we've gone from being a teacher to a soldier, from a soldier to an athlete.
Okay, an athlete that is striving for masteries, you know, you might consider, you know, a marathon runner, maybe trying to gain that gold medal, right?
Yet he's not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
Okay, so that's the illustration here of an athlete.
He only receives a crown.
He can only win the game or whatever it is that he's doing, right?
If he keeps it within the rules.
You know what?
If you break the rules of the game, then you're disqualified and you won't be crowned.
All right?
So I want you to notice all these different professions that Paul is using to describe someone that has to endure hardness, that needs to be strong in the grace of God.
And so we need to make sure that as we fight for the cause of Christ, that we fight as a soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ, that we do it within the laws.
We do it within the rules, okay?
Otherwise, you're not going to be crowned.
Now, we have the laws of God.
Hey, we need to operate within God's word.
You know, sometimes people say to me, you know, let's support this person, this missionary or this pastor.
And I find out that they're not really ordained properly.
Like, they haven't gone through the right process or maybe this person is disqualified or this person is not operating under a local church.
You know, it may be tempting to support brethren, but if they're not striving lawfully, if they're not following the commands, I don't want to crown them because they're not going to be crowned by Jesus Christ, okay?
And we want to be rewarded to the fullest, to the max.
And so we need to do within the confines of the laws that we have in the Bible.
But we're also commanded to keep the laws of the land.
You know, as long as the laws of the land are not contradicting to God's word, you know, we need to make sure that as we serve the Lord Jesus Christ, we're also mindful about the laws of the land.
You know, Jesus Christ was mindful to uphold the laws of Moses, but also understanding that he's operating under the laws of the Roman Empire.
And that's the battle that we have.
We have all these laws.
We have all these rules that we need to abide by.
But if we abide for it, brethren, and we just strive for the mastery, then we'll be crowned.
We break the rules, we get disqualified, you're not going to be rewarded, you're not going to be crowned for the work that you do.
Now, brethren, right now, just to let you know, in Sydney, I don't know, it's a hot day.
I mean, we were like 33 or 34 degrees out solar wind today.
I'm sunburned, I don't know if you can see it in my face or not.
But right now, we've got showers.
So if you can hear a bit of background noise, it's just heavy rain coming through.
And I'm hoping that the live stream doesn't cut out.
All right.
So let's just keep going.
Maybe just be praying silently that the live stream doesn't cut out.
Let's keep going there.
In verse number six, it says, the husband man, that laborer must be the first partaker of the fruits.
So we've gone from an athlete now to a husband man or a farmer, if you want to put it that way, okay?
A farmer is someone that requires to labor first, then he reaps the benefits.
Then he can eat the fruits of his labor.
And you know what, when it comes to serving the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to step out in faith, serve the Lord, labor for the Lord, and then the fruit will come.
Then the rewards will come.
You know, I mentioned today, we're out solar wind, right?
And we're out solar wind for four hours, two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon.
And you know, the first hour, we didn't get much, all right?
But we continue to labor faithfully.
And then as we continue to labor faithfully, as we start to get to the second hour, hey, we find the house, a husband and wife ready to receive the gospel, ready to call upon them the Lord, and they were saved.
Praise God for that, okay?
And so I just want to show you, there's all these professions, all these examples.
When it comes to endure hardness, when it comes to being strong in the grace of God, Paul decides to use all these different professions to speak about the role of a pastor.
Now, again, just because 2 Timothy and 1 Timothy are into pastors, it doesn't mean there's nothing that you can walk away from.
You know, the same things that are true for a pastor ought to be true for you as well, okay?
It's just that you don't have the office of a bishop of a local church.
And so let's keep going there in verse number seven.
Verse number seven, it says, consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things.
So Paul is saying, look, Timothy, consider what I've just said.
All right, so let's do that.
Let's consider what Paul has just said.
All right, let's endure hardness.
We need to endure hardness.
We need to be strong in the Lord.
So first of all, we saw that a teacher was someone that had to endure hardness.
A teacher is someone that has to be strong because to teach requires study.
And there is hardness in study, right?
You know, I'm not here to just put together a 10-minute sermonette for you and just give you a pat on the head, all right, guys, here's your lollipop, go home.
I want to give you a good meal.
I want to give you a good meal of God's word.
But you know what, it requires study.
It requires a bit of hardness.
It requires hours being put in and just seeking the Lord's help, trying to understand the passages and to make sure that you can teach where people can understand because then you want them going out there and teaching others also.
And then we have a soldier.
And of course, there's hardness in spiritual war.
But there's also a hardness in remaining focused and not getting distracted or entangled with the affairs of this life.
You know, that's my main goal as a pastor.
Obviously, I just want to preach you God's word, remain faithful and understand this world is falling apart, but I don't want to get distracted with this world, right?
You know, I don't want to start going all crazy and start to teach, oh, we're in the end times, you know, start teaching stupidity.
And we'll have a look at later on, you know, stupid doctrines, stupid things that are being taught by people that Paul has come across.
And then we have the athletes.
You know, this hardness to win a competition requires training, requires hard work, training every day, winning that race, right?
You know, the Christian life is a marathon, brethren.
You know, for all the days of our life, we're here to endure the hardness of the marathon run for Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
Let's stick to the rules.
Let's stick to God's laws.
Let's stick to the laws of this land and serve God to the fullest that we can.
And then, of course, we have the farmer and the farmer, as I said, endures hardness, hardness of laboring.
Sometimes you don't know whether, you know, the rain's going to fall.
You don't know whether you're going to be able to gain any fruits from the hard work that we do.
But you know what?
The farmer still plants.
The farmer still hopes.
The farmer still prays that God will give the fruits.
And so that's what we've learned here so far in 2 Timothy 2, the enduring of hardness.
And, brethren, I want you to endure hardness.
I want you to be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ.
And you need to think about yourself and, you know, hopefully, you know, in one of these four professions,
maybe you can identify yourself in an area that you're weak and say, you know what, Lord, I need to be strong in this.
Please help me be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse number 8, remember that Jesus Christ is the seed of David.
Sorry, I'll read that again.
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
Okay, so that is the gospel, right?
Jesus Christ died for us, rose again from the dead.
And I love how he says this is my gospel.
You know, I love that phrase so much.
But then you've got, you know, false teachers basically saying that the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection was only revealed to Paul.
And other people before Paul, they believed some other gospel.
They did not know that Christ would come and die and rise from the dead, right?
They teach that this was just a gospel.
This was just a teaching.
Only Paul knew this.
And he's the only one that revealed it to the church.
That's why he calls it my gospel.
No, he's called it my gospel because it's personal to him.
It's how he got saved, right?
He feels that he belongs or he owns this gospel.
And it's my gospel to give to others.
And you know what, brethren, we need to have the same heart.
You know, this gospel, this beautiful gospel message is my gospel.
Not because I'm the only one that knows it.
I'm the only one that's been revealed to.
It's my gospel because it's how I got saved and it's precious to me.
And I want to be able to give that to other people that they too can come to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But notice how beautiful, how much he loves the gospel message in verse number nine.
And then he then he then says, wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Praise God.
You know, Paul is so willing to preach the gospel that even if it means that it's going to cause him suffering, trouble or being arrested.
And we know at this time, Paul is arrested for the for the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And he says, look, it's so precious to me.
It's so important that we get the gospel out.
I'm willing to be persecuted.
I'm willing to go through hardness.
I've learned how to endure hardness.
I've learned how to be a good soldier for our Lord Jesus Christ.
But the word of God is not bound.
Praise God for that.
Praise God that we still have God's word today.
And you know what? God's word hasn't changed.
God's word still has the power to save.
And I love the fact that, you know, this gospel message has been passed down generation to generation now to us brethren.
What are you going to do with your gospel?
What are you what am I going to do with my gospel?
Let's not hide the gospel.
Let's make sure we, like Paul, go out there and tell people about the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Now, verse number 10 is interesting.
Let's have a look at verse number 10.
Therefore, I endure.
That's what we're trying to do, endure hardness.
Right.
Therefore, I endure all things, all the persecution for the elect's sake.
Let's stop there for a moment.
Well, who are the elect?
Now, if you know where we stand as a church and the sieges that I've done in the past, the elect are the saved.
All right.
Now, let's read this carefully.
Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
So hold on, Pastor Kevin.
How can the elect be the saved if Paul is trying to get them to obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus?
Don't they already have salvation?
The saved already are saved, right?
We don't have to, we don't lose our salvation and have to really get it or something like that.
Of course not.
And I want you to think about how people might take this passage and use it for Reformed theology or use it for Calvinism.
And let me just remind you what that is.
Some people believe that God has elected some to be saved and elected others to not be saved.
And so they would use a passage like this and say, see, Paul is interested in reaching the elect.
All right.
So these elects are not saved yet.
It's important for him to go out there and preach the gospel to the elect that will be saved.
Now, that's one way to think about it.
But let me explain to you why that falls apart.
Number one, if the elects are automatically going to be saved, God's already desired, it's already his will,
it's already his plan that these people are going to be saved no matter what, then why would Paul need to endure hardness?
Why is he saying that I have to endure all things?
Why is it that Paul is willing to be even put in prison for the elect's sake if they're going to be saved anyway?
Right?
I mean, if people are just going to be saved anyway, Paul doesn't have to endure hardness.
Paul doesn't have to be thrown in prison, right?
He can say, look, it's too hard.
I'm not going to preach in this area because if I do, I'm going to get arrested and thrown in prison.
Hey, but there's elect anyway.
They're going to get saved anyway.
We've all without me, so I'm just going to move on to somewhere else.
See, that doesn't make any sense.
And then they might say, well, Pastor Kevin, here's what you don't understand.
They still have to hear the gospel and believe it.
And so God has to use the apostle Paul to preach him the gospel that they may believe it.
Okay, but here's the second problem with that.
The same problem is they don't believe, Reformed theology, they don't believe someone gets, they don't believe that someone has to believe the gospel to be saved.
They actually believe before they believe the gospel that they're regenerated.
They believe that they're born again before they believe the gospel because they're already elected to be saved.
And so God saves them.
And then because they are regenerated, because they are elected, because they are saved, then they will believe the gospel eventually.
So that still doesn't answer the question, the need for Paul to suffer and go through hardship.
Reverend, I had a little bit of hardship today.
Again, I don't know if you can see my face is red.
It's sunburn.
We had free salvation today going out today.
I'm so happy that we can get out there preaching the gospel once again.
But hey, look, I endured a bit of hardness.
It was a little tough on the body.
It was a little hot today.
Hey, but praise God, we're able to pull free souls out of the fire, out of the fires of hell.
And so listen, why would I do that if I just think people are just automatically going to be regenerated because God has elected them?
No, when Paul is saying here, therefore I do all things for the elect's sake.
He said, look, I continue serving, preaching the gospel because those that believe are the elect.
It's not that they're elected to believe, but those that believe are elect.
So I'm going out there preaching that people may believe and we do it for the elect's sake.
We want people to be saved.
Amen.
And so, you know, when you when you consider Reformed theology with this verse, it falls apart.
Doesn't make any sense.
Why do hardness if they're going to be regenerated without your help anyway?
They're going to be saved apparently before they believe the gospel.
It makes no sense.
OK, let's keep going there.
Verse number 11.
It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.
OK, so this is a faithful saying, yeah, you know what?
We have died with Christ.
This flesh has been crucified, but the flesh keeps coming up.
Yeah, we're going to keep crucifying that old flesh.
OK, and so to live with him is obviously to walk in the new man, to walk after the Spirit of God.
Verse number 12.
If we suffer, now here's what's beautiful about this.
OK, we are going to endure hardness and, you know, we are going to go through tribulations.
You know, people will despise us just for the name of Christ.
I had some guy ringing me after the soul wedding, you know, having a go at me for trespassing,
trying to get out there preaching the gospel.
You're always going to get people that hate you, people that want to stop the work of God.
But it says if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
What a beautiful thing.
You know, if you do go through hardness and we endure it from the name of Christ, then we're going to reign with him.
Hey, our rewards will be greater.
Our authority that Jesus Christ gives us on the new earth and the new heavens and the new earth is going to be greater.
The more we suffer, the more we're persecuted.
And so we shouldn't shy away from persecution.
We shouldn't shy away from hardness because God is going to reward you in a greater capacity.
And then it says if we deny him, he also will deny us.
So if we go through hardship and you know what, we're just we don't want to we don't you know, we don't we just want to suffer and we just ignore the name of Christ.
We just don't preach the gospel.
We pretend not to be saved.
We pretend not to be Christians and we deny him in that sense, then he'll deny us as well.
There'll be lots of rewards.
We're not going to have the fullness of the rewards that Christ wants to give us in heaven.
It's not saying that you can lose your salvation.
OK, it's kind of like the apostle Peter.
He denied Christ three times, didn't he?
Hey, but Peter was saved.
OK, verse number 13, verse number 12.
So verse number 13, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
I love this, you know, it's like for like if we believe not and believe, you know, faith and belief are the same words, you know, or belief is, you know, a noun and faith is sorry.
Faith is the noun and believe is the verb.
And so we're talking the same thing here.
If we believe not, if you know, if we don't because it says here, yet he abideth faithful.
So the thought is if we don't remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, if we start to deny him, we start to become embarrassed to speak of our faith.
We don't want to go through the hardness.
You know what?
Even then, even though we may sometimes in our Christian life deny the Lord in that sense, you know, not want to be identified with him, yet he remains faithful.
He cannot deny himself.
Praise God for that.
OK, the reason why Christ will not deny you, brethren, even if you deny Christ, is he cannot deny himself.
What does that mean?
Well, very quickly, Second Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
You know, the moment you're saved, you are in Christ Jesus.
OK, so Christ is living in our hearts.
OK, we've been identified with Christ.
Yeah.
And so Christ cannot deny us because then he'd have to deny himself.
And, brethren, yes, I understand, you know, sometimes this flesh does wicked things, this flesh that has wicked thoughts, this flesh is, you know, unfaithful.
But that new man, that new man is perfect.
That new man within us is sinless.
Christ cannot deny that new man.
Praise God that we have Christ living in us.
Verse number 14 of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
Now, what I love about second Timothy chapter two, it's all about being strong.
It's all about enduring hardness.
And as I said, we need to make sure that what we're fighting for, what we're standing strong on are the things that God wants us to be striving for.
The things that God wants to be focused and strong upon.
OK.
And not just every little issue that seems to annoy you or whatever.
OK.
Because there's a good, there's a great counterbalance that we find here in verse number 14.
But actually, the first time this counterbalance was found in the scriptures was once again, was when it says that we ought to be ready to war.
We ought to be ready to be soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ, but not entangling ourselves with the affairs of this life.
OK.
So we ought to be strong.
We ought to be warring.
We don't worry about everything.
OK.
We don't worry about all the affairs that take place in this life.
That's the counterbalance.
We need to make sure that we don't take this doctrine about being fighters, about being strong and just applied to every aspect of our life.
There are other things that God does not want us to be focused upon.
That's counterbalance number one.
But counterbalance number two, as it says here, charging them before the Lord that they strive not.
And normally, a soldier strives, a soldier fights, but there's something God doesn't want us to strive about.
OK.
Strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
And so this idea of words to no profit is if people are having doctrinal discussions or arguments and we're bringing up doctrinal points that have no profit, no value.
It's like, who cares?
Like, why is that important?
You know, and then people start splitting heads.
People start, you know, navel gazing on the smallest issues and then they argue about it because they can't see eye to eye on it.
Brethren, there are core doctrines or fundamental doctrines.
There are major important doctrines and I'll fight for those doctrines, Brethren.
But I've said it many times.
I don't expect everyone, you know, I don't expect every member of New Life After Church to believe every little detail exactly like me.
I'm happy that you believe things a little bit differently.
OK.
As long as there's some major heiresses, you know, the Bible leaves open for conjecture.
We may consider, well, this, you know, in this situation might be this situation might be that.
We don't know for sure.
The Bible doesn't necessarily say, hey, but this is just our thoughts and it's fine to bring thoughts and ideas to the table.
But Brethren, I'm not going to fight with you over stupid little issues that mean nothing.
They have no profit.
OK.
Because here it says, but to the subverting of the hearers, people are going to hear those arguments.
People are going to hear those debates of no profit and go, man, this is it's going to unsettle them.
It's going to make them think, man, it was supposed to be a church of love.
We have to be a church that loves the Brethren.
We're fighting over little issues that mean nothing.
Yeah.
Or, you know, we ought to be a church that is fighting for the faith, that is soldiering on for God and bringing people into the kingdom.
And, you know, rather, we're spending our time out there protesting some joining some march there.
Was that really what God wanted us to do?
You know, like we're getting distracted on things that don't matter.
I don't expect anybody to believe every little thing like me.
Hey, you know, praise God for our church.
We have the fundamentals of the faith that we stand on.
We have some core doctrines that our church stands for that we're not going to compromise on.
Hey, when it comes to other little things, so be it.
Someone believes a little bit different.
What's the big deal?
If there's no benefit, there's no profit in fighting about it.
So we need to be careful not to just fight every little battle.
You know, pick your battles, make sure those battles have profit.
Make sure it's worth fighting those battles.
People are going to see things sometimes differently to you.
Verse number 15, study.
So remember, this is Paul writing to Pastor Timothy.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
Now, I could do an entire sermon just on this one verse, okay?
But I just want to show you that Paul tells Timothy continue to study.
Pastors need to continue to study.
Brethren, I don't have all the answers.
I don't know all the chapters.
I don't know all the verses.
I have to keep studying.
I need to keep growing in my knowledge.
You know, I never want to be a pastor that gets comfortable.
I know enough, okay?
No, we need to continue to study because I don't want to be a workman that's ashamed.
I don't want to be embarrassed.
And like, you know, I make some major errors, some major error in scriptures.
I start teaching some major heresy just because I did not study.
I did not go to God's word.
I was just rather convinced by the words of man or something like that.
Now, pastors need to be well grounded in the word of God, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Now, some people take this idea of rightly dividing and they just go nuts with it, okay?
Now, the biggest division, the biggest division in your Bible
is between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
That division already exists.
And one of the key things that's good to learn is knowing what has remained the same
and what has changed.
Understand that the first covenant was given to a physical nation.
The second covenant is given to a spiritual nation.
Just understanding the differences between the two covenants, that division,
hey, that's going to put you in good stead.
That's going to give you good foundations to learn and continue to learn the Bible.
But I just want to show you what is, why is Paul concerned for Timothy to continue studying?
And the reason for this is because there are some false prophets that have crept into the church
and started to teach heresies, okay?
Major heresies.
Let's keep going there.
You know, another job of the pastor is to make sure that when people start talking about nonsense,
that the pastor shuts it down.
Why?
Because it'll increase unto more ungodliness.
You know, stupid topics, people love to talk about it.
Like false doctrines, false ideas, false theologies, people like to talk about it.
What?
That's what happens.
It increases.
Look at this, verse number 17.
And their word will eat as doff a canker.
Canker is like a cancer, like a virus that continues to grow, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus.
And here we got two false prophets, okay?
They're teaching stupid things.
And that stupid teaching starts to spread.
And so Timothy, as some of that is to study God's word, to show himself a workman approved,
is to shut down stupid doctrines that creep into the church.
I thank God that, you know, so far, you know, sometimes, yes, some dumb issues have come up.
They've been quickly taken down, okay?
Thank God that we have a church that doesn't put up with profane and vain babblings.
I like that about our churches.
Look at verse number 18.
Now what is it that Hymenaeus and Philetus have been teaching, who concerning the truth have
erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some?
So they're teaching that the resurrection has already taken place.
That I don't even understand.
How can you teach such stupidity?
I mean, you know, what is the resurrection?
It's this body being changed.
It's being changed like as to one unto Christ.
Being Christ-like in this physical body.
That's the resurrection.
It takes place at the coming of Christ at the rapture.
And so they're teaching this, I don't know if they're teaching the rapture is already taking place,
you know, Christ that can come in.
They're definitely teaching that the resurrection of the saints have already taken place.
I don't understand how anybody could be teaching that or falling for such stupid doctrine.
Now I thank God that I don't really know of any religion, like anything that falls on the realm
of Christendom that teaches the resurrection has already taken place.
It looks like Pastor Timothy shut it down with the help of Paul, okay?
Yeah, Pastor Paul and Pastor Timothy shut down this false doctrine.
I don't really know it being preached today.
How about you guys?
I've never really heard it taught ever.
The only thing that comes the closest I think is the JWs.
They teach that Jesus Christ came back in 1914.
And we know that when Christ comes back, the resurrection takes place at that point.
That's the closest that I know of where they teach that Christ came back in 1914.
Hey, teaching such a stupid thing like that just shows that the JWs are a false religion, okay?
It's a cult.
It has nothing to do with Christianity.
It's removed completely from the fundamentals of the faith.
And so I just want to keep things within context here.
Paul is saying rightly divide the word of truth.
Why was this an issue?
Because there were people going around teaching that the resurrection has already taken place.
If we keep this within the context of what we're looking at here, okay?
Rightly divided says, look, that's wrongly divided.
You're saying the resurrection takes place.
That hasn't happened yet.
That is still a future event to come.
And so we learn another thought there of rightly dividing.
Knowing what has already taken place in the past and what still is to come.
Hey, that's a great place to study and rightly divide over what has
been fulfilled and what still is to take in place in the future, okay?
All right, let's keep going there.
Verse number 19.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal.
The Lord knoweth them that are his.
And let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
So these two false prophets that were preaching this stupidity.
They're not his.
They're not the Lord's, okay?
It says, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth true.
Standeth sure, sorry.
And so I was kind of thinking about this.
In what sense could we, let's take the immediate context here, okay?
Number one, we know that when we're saved, our foundation is Christ, amen?
That salvation is purely on the finished work of Christ.
That's our foundation.
Now, as we go and serve the Lord, we start building upon that foundation.
And here's the thing.
These two false prophets are found to not have the foundation of Jesus Christ, okay?
That's why the false prophets, they've lost that foundation.
Now, every, well, they haven't lost this foundation.
They've never had that foundation.
But everyone that is named after Christ, everyone that is saved,
has that foundation of Jesus Christ.
And when some people start teaching damnable heresies,
then you know immediately, hey, that foundation is not sure.
That person is not saved.
You know, they're a false prophet.
And not just false, but unsaved.
And they're teaching stupidity.
The other foundation that I think about, of course, is the foundation of God's word.
God's word standeth sure.
And, you know, I've not been soul winning for several months because of the lockdowns.
Finally, today, we're able to go out soul winning, brethren.
And let me tell you, I was a little bit rusty.
Okay, I was a little bit rusty, yeah?
I mean, I eventually found my feet, got into it.
My first gospel presentation was a little bit all over the place.
I didn't go in according to my plan normally.
Praise God, they still got saved.
Amen.
But here's the thing.
Even though I was rusty, they still got saved.
Even though I was rusty, the foundation of God's word was sure.
God's word did not get rusty, brethren, during lockdown.
God's word did not change during lockdown.
Praise God, I was rusty.
But God's word, God's foundation was sure.
Praise God for that.
And those souls are going to heaven because of God's word.
The other foundation that we can think about is the foundational doctrines.
Once again, you know, why do people like these two false prophets start teaching complete nonsense?
It's because they walk away from the foundational doctrines.
You know, in order for you not to get caught up with
major heresies and start teaching and believing stupid things,
you have to stay true to the fundamental doctrines.
You stick true to the fundamentals of the faith, you know, the core doctrines of our church,
then you won't be misled, okay?
Because when you start to get misled with false doctrines,
eventually you're going to find a great divide from the fundamentals.
You're going to find inconsistencies with the fundamentals of the faith.
You stick true to the fundamentals, brethren, and that's going to help you
avoid going down a bad path, believe in false things.
All right, let's keep going there.
Actually, verse number 19, once again, let's just look at the end of it.
It says, and let everyone that name of the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Okay, so these two false prophets, they're committing iniquity.
Number one, they're false teaching.
But look, all of us, if we name the name of Christ,
if you're a Christian, brethren, if you believe in Jesus Christ,
then you're commanded to depart from iniquity.
We need to overcome the sins of our life,
continue trying to live that clean and holy life that God wants us to live.
And there's a reason behind this, departing from iniquity.
Verse number 20, and it kind of plays into what I taught on Sunday as well.
But in verse number 20, it says, but, so but's a conjunction, right?
It's following what was covered before.
But in a great house, so you know, like a rich house, like a mansion,
in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
And so in a great house, you know, a wealthy man has many vessels,
these vessels could be cups, plates, cutlery, okay?
And there are some that yeah, they're of wood and earth, they're clay,
and some to dishonor, hey, those clay ones would be to dishonor,
the ones of wood, they're cheap, they're cheap, okay?
And then you've got other vessels, you've got other cups of gold and silver.
And these obviously are not cheap.
And here's the thing, a wealthy man will use his vessels for different reasons.
You know, when it comes to, I guess, just your everyday eating,
he's going to use his vessels of low quality.
You know, when it comes to the servants to eat,
they're going to eat from the low quality vessels.
Hey, but when the wealthy man invites his guests over,
he invites his friends over, hey, if they're having some type of party,
and he's going to pull out the best,
he's going to take out the best of the gold and the silver vessels, right?
To honor those people that have come for the party or whatever.
We had something similar in our house.
Not so much now, they're a bit mixed up,
but hey, we had some really good cutlery,
and someone gifted us even better cutlery.
And so when it came to just our everyday eating,
we just used the lower quality ones.
Hey, but if we had guests over, we put out the better quality stuff, okay?
And so that's how it is.
There are some things of high quality, there are some things of low quality.
And Brevin, we look at this illustration here.
Obviously, this person's going to be the Lord here,
and we want to make sure that we're vessels of high quality, amen?
We don't want to be just vessels of wood and of clay.
We want to be vessels of gold and silver in the hands of our Lord God.
Because it keeps going there in verse number 21.
If a man therefore purge himself of these,
he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified,
and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
Listen, the master wants to drink from that gold and silver cup.
He wants to eat of that silver cutlery, Brevin.
He wants to use you as a vessel.
But what kind of vessel are you?
Are you gold and silver, or are you of wood and of earth, of clay?
And so we're to purge ourselves.
Purge ourselves of what?
Well, remember what verse number 19 said, okay?
Everyone that name of the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
We need to purge ourselves from iniquity, right?
I mean, if you're just caving into sin, caving into the temptations of this world,
and just not living that clean life, Brevin, look, you're still a vessel.
You still can be used by God, but you're a vessel of dishonor.
You know, God's not going to pull you out for great service for the master's use.
But you know what?
We purge ourselves of our iniquities.
We try to live that golden life.
We become those vessels of gold and silver, and then God has great use for us.
And let's keep going there, verse number 21.
If a man therefore, sorry, I read that already.
Oh yeah, sorry.
The other thing is, let's not miss what we're covering, okay?
The vain and profane bad winds, right?
Shun vain and profane bad winds, right?
Don't teach and believe, you know, false doctrines,
valuable heresies, get rid of these false prophets.
You know what?
If we get rid not just of our iniquities, hey, but we stop with the vain and profane bad winds.
We stop with the fights and, you know, the arguments of our words to no profit.
You know, we don't put up with nonsense and false teaching.
Hey, we're also purging ourselves from those things.
If we purge ourselves from false teaching, Brevin, then we can be used for the master's use.
Then we'll shine as vessels of gold and silver.
You know, I want Jesus Christ, I want the Lord God to look down and say, you know what?
I need some vessels for the master's use.
We need some vessels to serve the Lord God, to do the work of God,
and for God to look down on the Sunshine Coast and look at New Life Baptist Church and say,
boy, here are some vessels of gold and silver.
Here are some vessels that are living a clean and holy life.
You know, they're fighting.
They're trying to overcome the sins in their lives.
You know, they don't put up with false doctrines.
They don't argue with their brethren of stupid little things that don't matter.
That's what I want from New Life Baptist Church.
I want God when he says I need some gold and silver vessels.
Oh yeah, don't forget New Life Baptist Church because they're right there, right?
They're packed away for the master's use, ready to be used for God's service.
That's what I want for our church brethren.
Let's keep going there in verse number 22.
It says, yeah, verse number 22.
Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
And so as we purge ourselves from our iniquities, right?
We're to purge ourselves from the lusts.
And look, don't forget, this is being written to a pastor, to Bishop Timothy.
You know, pastors can struggle with lust.
Pastors can, just as easily as anybody else, get back to their old sins, old lifestyle.
And so Paul is reminding Timothy, you look past Timothy,
you got to, you know, flee from youthful lusts.
But then it's not just the pastor.
Not just, you know, instead follow the righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
but then say this, with them that call on the,
sorry, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So that's all of us brethren.
Paul's writing to the pastor, but then to all.
All of us need to flee youthful lusts.
All of us should be following after righteousness, faith, charity, peace.
All right.
So yes, there's a high standard for a pastor, brethren,
but you know what?
We all should be aiming for that same standard.
Amen.
We should all be aiming for the same standard of cleanliness,
of holiness, of purity, of love, of charity.
All these things that God wants us to aim for,
we ought to be all aiming for that same one thing.
Let's keep going there, verse number 23.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid,
knowing that they do gender strife.
Hey, Pastor Kevin, aren't we supposed to strive?
Hey, we're soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yeah, again, here's another council measure.
We don't want to strive over every little thing.
You know, people asking stupid questions, unlearned questions, foolish questions.
We don't want to waste time on that.
You know what?
This is one of my favorite things.
Sometimes I get asked stupid things.
I get phone calls, stupid questions, brethren.
And I love, yep, I've got the commandment here to avoid them.
So I was like, look, you know, that's a foolish question.
You know, see you later.
That's the easiest thing to do as a pastor.
Amen.
It's because I get so many questions.
I get so many people ringing me for different things.
And the best thing to do is to be able to avoid that.
And you say, you should be patient with those people.
Look, let's keep going.
Let's keep going.
Verse number 24.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive.
So look, if someone comes with foolish questions,
I'm not going to just throw that person like, and like have,
wants nothing to do with them.
I just don't, look, if it starts to cause strife, right?
If someone comes with foolish questions and they're just there to argue, right?
It says here, the servant of the Lord must not strive.
I'm not going to strive with foolish questions.
All right.
But here's the thing.
Some people may have foolish questions, but they're not seeking to strive.
They actually want to learn.
Hey, that's a different person.
All right.
Because it says here, but be gentle unto all men, act to teach patience in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves.
If God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
Look, if someone comes with some stupid questions,
I'm going to do my best to answer it.
I'm going to try to do the best I can to teach them,
to come alongside them with meekness and instruct them in God's word.
But listen, in that process, if that person does not receive God's word
and they just want to strive, they just want to argue about it,
I'm just going to avoid it then.
You know what?
Don't waste my time.
You want to go argue with someone else?
Hey, I'm here to be a soldier for the Lord God.
I'm here to stand for his word, but I'm not here to strive over foolish questions.
Again, we've got to have all these counterbalances.
We want to be balanced as Christians and not be argumentative and striving and fighting
and worrying about every little thing that comes up.
We'll be wasting our time, wasting our precious time,
instead of fighting the battles that God wants us to fight.
Verse number 26,
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him at his will.
Notice that.
When Christians start believing false doctrines, stupid things,
vain and profane babblings, all this nonsense.
You know why they believe that?
Because they've fallen in the snare of the devil.
What's a snare?
It's a trap.
The devil has trapped them.
Okay, they fall into the hands of the devil and they can't get out.
Now, sometimes these people that can't get out, they need our help.
That's why we should come alongside them with meekness, teaching them things of God's word.
Pastors should be studied, should know how to help somebody get out of false doctrine.
And you know what?
I've had times where I've helped people come out of false doctrine and believe the right thing.
And there are other times I've not been able to do that.
Why?
Because they just want to strive.
They don't want to learn.
They don't want to grow.
They don't want to receive God's word.
They just want to stay in the snare of the devil.
In that case, well, they can stay that way.
Okay, because I'm not there to strive.
I'm not there to argue over things like that.
All right, brethren, that's second Timothy chapter two.
And I hope there's something that you could take away from this passage.
And I just want to quickly read once more from verse number two.
Second Timothy chapter two verse number two.
And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also.
Don't forget, especially for the men up there, if you have something you want to teach,
you've come across something in God's word and your heart desires to preach something to God's
people, please let me know.
Okay, I'm not here to hog the pulpit.
I'd like for you guys to be available.
And here's the thing, I'm happy to continue preaching.
I'm not saying that I'm trying to reduce how much I preach for the church.
I'm just saying, look, if there's other faithful men that want to get behind the pulpit and
teach some great truths of God's word, please let me know.
You guys know me.
I'm usually more than happy to let you guys have the practice so you can be used as a
vessel for God as well.
Okay, let's pray.