All the all of the men that are filling in for pastor while he's
gone. And so doc is the doc is going
to preach for us tonight or teach and then so get your
Bibles out and what he's coming. All right, since we got so many
men gone, I thought it'd be appropriate to preach on
husbands or wives, submit yourself to your own husbands.
But that's not what I'm going to.
So we're not we're going to look at you know, usually pastor
gives us about a month heads up, but this time it was a little
sooner. So he just asked last week and I
was just asking the Lord what, you know, what to to speak on
and is that we're sitting down here constantly.
We're looking at our hold fast. And so I thought it'd be
appropriate just to refresh our our memories about what what
that is. And I don't remember.
I didn't on purpose. I didn't go back and look to see
what he preached on the vision Sunday because I didn't want to,
didn't want to know because if this is repetitive, then it's
just that's the way it worked out.
So anyway, let's turn to Second Timothy, chapter 1.
We'll start there. I'm just going to read the first
13 verses. I'm going to see if I can read
as fast as Pastor Simeon you know he was that that guy could
that guy could book reading the Bible, but second Timothy
chapter 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God
according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus to
Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace mercy and peace from God
the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure
conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my
prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being
mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call
to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which
dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice.
And I am persuaded that in Thee also, wherefore I put thee in
remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in
thee by the putting on of my hands.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power,
and of love, and of a sound mind.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the
afflictions of the Gospel, according to the power of God,
who hath saved us and called us within holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our save of
our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.
Where? Whereunto I am appointed A
preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles For the
which 'cause I also suffer these things.
Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able all he's able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me
in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
And that'll be our basically our text verse.
But I was just thinking about thinking about holding fast and
I I like you'll warf more movies and warf things like that.
And I think about like the time of David and when they were
fighting, they fought with, you know, hand to hand combat.
And so back in Second Samuel. Let's see if I can turn there
real quick. Second Samuel, I believe chapter
23, it's talking about David's mighty men.
These be the names of the mighty men whom David had the
Tachmanite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains, the
same as Adino, the Eznite. He lift up his spear against
800, whom he slew at one time. And after him was Eleazar, the
son of Dodo the Yahoo height, one of the three mighty men with
David. When they defied when they
defied the Philistines that were gathered together to the battle
in the middle of Israel were gone away.
He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was
weary and his hand clave unto the sword.
And the Lord brought a great victory that day.
So that's I think that would be considered holding fast.
He was holding on with a a strong grip.
So hold, hold means cling, grasp, grip firmly, retain.
So different meanings of the word and fast in in this context
with hold fast means completely or tightly.
So I can just picture that with him, him, you know, hand to hand
combat with that sword, his hand basically was I, I can see them
just having to peel his fingers off of it because he was holding
fast. He wasn't going to let that
weapon go. That was his.
That was his protection and his weapon.
So but anyway, the that is exactly the picture Paul was
giving to Timothy, I think in in this letter.
And this is Paul's in prison. And this, as far as we know,
this is Paul's last words that he wrote to anybody in chapter
4, Second Timothy, it says in verse four or verse 5.
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work
of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
So Paul is, I think even the context and the seriousness of
Second Timothy as compared to First Timothy, it's much more
serious and sober because he wants to get something across to
Timothy as his last message to him.
And Timothy being a good listener and a good follower and
a good and close friend. He calls him his son Timothy.
He, he listened, He wanted to listen and follow what Paul had
to say. So Timothy wasn't a casual
listener. He was serious in his listening.
And that's something we all need to do.
He traveled with Paul, he sat under his teaching, he watched
his life and he heard the pure gospel straight from the
apostles lips. Paul says don't let it slip,
don't water it down, don't trade it for something new or popular.
Hold fast. I was looking I'm going to do
this from my phone because I looked up some verses just to
see where hold fast is in the Bible and it was 9 verses
including our our text verse first job, my righteousness, I
hold fast and typically it's hold fast.
It's in a positive manner where he's holding fast to his
righteousness, holding fast to good things.
But Jeremiah on the other hand, he says, why then is this people
of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding.
They hold fast deceit they refuse to return.
So there's holding fast on to what's right, but there's also
holding fast on to the wrong thing.
And we don't want to be that person holding fast to the wrong
to sin. 1st Thessalonians 521 says prove all things hold fast,
that which is good. And then our verse, Second
Timothy 113 Hebrews 36. But Christ as a son over his own
house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end?
And then he was 414 Seeing then that we have a great high priest
that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession. Then Hebrews 10/23 let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is
faithful that promised it. Then a couple verses in
Revelations where Jesus speaking to the churches and it's hold
fast till I come. Jesus is telling him hold fast.
So Paul preached that Jesus preached that and then we we
definitely want to be following that.
So what are we to hold fast since he's giving that command
to Timothy? What was he telling Timothy to
hold fast? And then in our text verse it
says hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me
in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
Hold fast the form of sound words.
The phrase hold fast, we already talked about means to cling
tightly, to retain firmly, never let go even when pressure comes.
It's it's it's active. It's an active thing that we're
doing. It's the opposite of, I guess
being lazy or just drifting and not doing anything with what
you've been given. And what exactly are we to hold
besides the for this form of sound words, form or pattern?
In many translations it means a standard or a template.
I was thinking of a form, as Paul would know, you lay a form
out when you're going to pour some in or something like that,
you want the cement to look a certain way.
If you're putting in a sidewalk and the sidewalk maybe winds,
those forms have to be just right.
And so when you put that cement in there, it hardens, you remove
the form, but that sidewalk is still the way it's supposed to
be. If we follow God's word and we
stick with that and holding, holding a form of sound words,
then we're going to be basically, we'll be straight,
we'll be, we'll be doing what God wants us to do.
So Paul's teaching is very, very straightforward.
It's not his opinion. He's giving what God gave him.
So it's it was clear and a definite path like like that
following the form of for cement.
My illustration there, sound words literally means healthy,
wholesome or healing words. These are teachings that produce
spiritual health, not sickness. They lead to godliness and not
error. So Paul is saying, cling to the
pure doctrine of the gospel. When we think about that, we
wanted to be clinging to holding on to the truth about Christ's
death, burial, and resurrection, about salvation by grace through
faith. These important doctrines that
Paul was teaching through his his Gospels, the authority of
the Scriptures, the holiness of God, the reality of judgment and
eternal life. And there is judgment for for a
Christian say, but there's also judgment, eternal judgment for
the unsaved. In verse 14 says that good thing
which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost, which
dwelleth in us. So he was in, he was entrusting
Timothy with a good doctrine given by the Holy Spirit and it
was passed from Paul to Timothy, Timothy to the next person, the
next person to to the next person all the way down to us.
We've been given the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the the
perfect word of God in the Scriptures and we are to pass
that on. So I think about that and to,
you know, our children, we need to be passing that on to our
children so that they can pass it on to their children and
future generations so that we have what's happened for the
last 2000 years, just a perpetuation of the gospel going
forward. And then so we know what we're
all to hold fast to, how are we to hold fast?
And that our verse tells us hold fast the form of sound words
which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in
Christ Jesus. Hold fast in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. Paul doesn't just say hold fast,
he tells, he tells Timothy, he tells us how in faith we hold
the truth with sincere trust in the Lord Jesus.
So our our faith is in the Lord Jesus.
That's our first believing faith for salvation.
And then it's our our faith in the Lord Jesus to follow him in
our Christian life. It's not a dry intellectual
knowledge. It's believing the truth with
all our hearts, trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior.
If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, then Bible tells
us that today is the day of salvation.
So really some of the younger kids, I know most of us here on
Wednesday night trusted the Lord as our Savior.
But some of these younger kids may be have not.
It's something that as parents, you talked with them and deal
with them and, and the Holy Spirit will lead you and
hopefully them to to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So in faith and in love, we hold
it with genuine love for Christ and then genuine love for
others. So we love as a Christian, we
love him because he first loved us.
The Bible tells us, and but we should love others as well.
And that's part of, I think, wanting to share it with our
families so that they we can perpetuate the gospel, but then
sharing it with others that are not saved because we love them.
And that's I'm telling you, that's a hard thing for me to do
because I don't know. You just see the wickedness of
the world if you watch the news and you get discouraged because
it's like this is such a wicked we're and these people are
horrible. Well, we can't help it that
they're horrible. We that's, you know, they're,
they're the children of the devil.
We have to love them. And so I pray for me that I'll
be better at that. But anyway, in faith and in
love, we don't hold fast to sound doctrine by our own
strength or cleverness. We do it in Christ Jesus,
relying on His power, abiding in Him, and letting His Spirit work
in US and through us. And then thirdly, why must we
hold fast? Paul wrote this because he saw
the danger. Verses 15 through 18.
This knows that all they which are in Asia be turned away from
me, of whom are jealous and homogeneous.
The Lord give mercy unto the House of Vanessa for us, for He
offered fresh me, and was not ashamed of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently
and found me and the Lord. Yeah, that basically I think in
verse 15 thou this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia
be turned away from me, of whom are Vagelis and homogenies.
So Paul knew that people would be turning against Timothy as
well, and he wanted to share that, that he needs to be
prepared. He needs to be able to stand
against bulls and sheep clothing in the midst of the church
against those that are outside the church that are attacking
him. And he needs to have the
strength to do that and not fall away from the truth that he had
learned from Paul. So it's very similar in our day
where we have the pressures of the the culture pressures of
churches that have gone away from what's right and teaching
the, the true word of God and are trying to, you know, work,
work up spiritual spirituality with music and the lights and
what we've all talked about. And you know, pastors talked
about that many times having a rock concert to to try and draw
people in, but you're not drawing them to the Savior.
You're drawing them to a performer and trying to build a
crowd and maybe make money through what's supposed to be a
church ministry. So things like that our culture
like they call biblical truth hate speech and we be we need to
be able to stand against that false teachers who twist the
scripture and fit modern desires, temptation to be
relevant like being the cool guy in the skinny jeans and T-shirt
up here. Preaching or so-called preaching
and personal trials that make us want to back off.
Maybe we're going through some real struggles in our life or
finances or health or whatever it might be and makes us want to
back off from serving the Lord and holding fast.
So we want to be careful about that.
If we let go of sound doctrine, we lose our anchor and church
becomes powerless. Church has become powerless,
believers become unstable, and the gospel loses its saving
power in our proclamation. So if we're trying to spread the
gospel, if we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit and
we've lost that, then we're not going to be able to proclaim
that gospel in a way that it should be proclaimed.
But when we hold fast, we stand firm like a lighthouse in the
storm, guiding others to safety. And that's what we should be as
a church, a lighthouse guiding others to safety.
And we, I think our church, you know, pastor does a good job of
encouraging us to be that lighthouse.
And we are out here with the Bibles and we're Brian's group
knocking on doors. And eventually when we have
room, we'll have a bus ministry. And we're looking forward to
that day. That's always a lot of fun.
It brings a lot of excitement to the church when you could run
the buses. So how do we hold fast today?
What's the practical application?
Know the Word of God, read, study, and memorize Scripture.
Second Timothy 2:15. I'm sure you you probably know
these verses, but I'll read a couple of these to you.
Second Timothy 2:15. Says Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
And second Timothy 3:15 it says in that from a child thou has
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
So Timothy was taught by his grandmother and his mother the
Scriptures and he knew them from a young child.
So that's important that we know the word of God and we memorize
it. Now I'm having a lot harder time
memorizing the Bible as I'm getting as not as young as I
used to be. So I struggle with that every
week. I'm like, man, how many verses
to say and I look at the date and the last when was the last
time you remember you said a verse in your book who was a
month ago? I really need to work on that.
You know, I take the brain supplements and everything.
It just doesn't doesn't doesn't seem to work.
Believe and obey. Let the truth shape your life.
Live it out in faith and love. Titus 38 turn there.
Titus 38 says this is a faithful saying, and these things I will
that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men.
So believe and obey doing the works that we're supposed to do
as Christians teach and pass it on.
Talked about that earlier teaching our children, but back
in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Go there.
I'm just going to read it when I get there.
So if you don't get there, sorry about that.
Here, O Lord, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words which I have, which I command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart, And thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest
in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when
thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they
shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
So we want to pass that on. And so the verse 9.
And thou shalt write them upon thy post of thy house and on thy
gates. So it's always nice when you go,
you go to somebody's house and they have there's Bible verses
around. It's just, you know, nice to see
that or the Bible is always there somewhere prominent in the
house. So that's, that's a good thing
and a blessing. So they're, they're teaching it,
passing it on, rely on the Holy Spirit, pray for the Holy
Spirit's power daily. And he's the one who keeps us
faithful. Help us to hold fast by by
having the Holy Spirit's power, and then stand even when it
costs. Be willing to suffer for the
gospel just as Paul did. Don't be ashamed of Christ or
his words. Second Timothy 112 Back in our
text chapter there. Second Timothy 112 for the which
'cause I also suffer these things.
Nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day and then hold fast, hold
fast. So it's important that we, we
hold fast to sound the form of sound words or the the Bible.
And basically that's the sound, the most sound words you can
have is from God's Word. And we don't want to drift with
the culture, don't want to compromise to make our lives
easier. Don't trade healthy truth for
empty promises. So that's it.
Hold fast in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love
you and we thank you for your goodness to us.
Thank you for this. Just a reminder of our need to
hold fast in the truths of your word and the truth of salvation
that provided by you and in the truth of the the importance of
sharing the gospel and perpetuating it through our
families, see our children, our grandchildren saved and
spreading that to future generations.
Lord, I pray you'd help us to do that.
I pray you just work in our hearts throughout the rest of
the week. We do pray for the men down in
Belize and we thank you for them, their willingness to go
down there and work. Pray that you would just bless
the work that they do there. Bless the rest of this evening
and we thank you for your word. Again, in Jesus name we pray.
Amen. I don't know, it's been several
months now, maybe maybe even a couple years.
There was a Baptist pastor that came out and he was pretty proud
of the fact that he was switching to Catholicism.
You guys remember hearing about that.
There's been a few few people like that in in the in the news
and things like that. But how does that happen?
How did you how do you I'm not Paul was very clear.
He said some of them went out from us because they were not of
us. Right.
So that that's very likely the reason.
But how do you grow up in a Baptist Church, hear the gospel
preached here, good doctrine, I would assume preached and then
be a pastor yourself and then go and say, you know what, the
Catholic, the Catholic religion. I think that's, that's the truth
there. You're not holding fast.
And I, I was thinking this, you know, when you used to go to
your grandparents house, My grandparents when we grew up, we
lived in Indiana and they lived in Iron Mountain, MI.
I was like 8 hours away. And every time without failing
it, I'm sure everybody that doesn't live near their
grandparents hears this. Every time we saw them.
What was their phrase? Ma, you're getting so big when
you're looking at each other, you don't, you don't see each
other grow. And you, you know, your, your
siblings, you don't seem to change that much day-to-day.
But when you don't see somebody for a year and then you see
them, there's a big change. That's what happens when you
don't hold fast. You may not see the changes
day-to-day, but we pastor has said it many times.
If you're not going forward, what's happening?
You're you're going backwards, you're backsliding.
And Proverbs warns about it. The backsliding, that's not
hold. That's what not holding fast is.
And so you know, you don't hold fast.
And I don't mean go to church. I mean hold fast.
That truth that we've been given from God.
What happens? Somebody sees you a year later
and they're shocked at how far you've drifted, right?
We may not see it ourselves, but that's what happens when we
don't hold fast. I think it's very important.
We're not passing down. He said, mentioned this right at
the very end that we pass the past, this truth down generation
to generation. We're not passing down herbal
remedies, right? We're passing the truth of the
gospel from generation to generation to generation.
And he says that that good thing which was committed unto thee,
this was not just, you know, a recipe that hey, it's not
written down. So my mom had had some of those.
I'm sure others have secret, secret ingredients and secret
recipes that I'll pass down to one of my daughters and she'll
be the only one that knows it. That's not what this is.
This is the truth that Christ died for our sins.
And he says that good thing which was committed unto thee,
keep it by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.
That's a really, really powerful verse fact that we cannot do it
by ourselves. You're not going to be able to
keep that truth and and and hold fast and do all that on our own.
Keep it by the Holy Ghost which dwell within us.
Very important part of that verse there.
But yeah, that's great, Great reminder.
But these are things that we do on a daily basis.
I was just talking to a guy at work and he said I can't, I just
don't want to go to church and not know.
He didn't grow up in church, but he said I don't want to go to
church and not understand what's being talked about.
So once I kind of have a grasp on the Bible, then I'll start
going to church. And I said, you'll, you'll never
have a full grasp on the Bible. A, if you're not saved, but B,
if you don't just start sitting under the truth of the word of
God. But for those of us that are
coming to church on Sundays, Sundays not enough.
You need to be in God's Word daily.
And we see lots of that in the Bible.
But so that we can keep that, that good thing, we can hold
fast to that which was committed unto us.
That's how you you read the Bible and you're meditating on
it and the Holy Spirit's working on you.
And that's what motivates us and gets us eager to go out and
share it with others. We don't have that on our own
only through the Holy Spirit and that, that power that that he
gives us will we go out and share it with others.
And that's how we keep that good thing that was committed unto
us. We, we keep it going.
Not a religion as this is the only true Christianity is the
only faith that is not religion. And that's a, that's a pretty
powerful thing. There's so many religions out
there that are all just man made.
They're, they're, they are trying to perpetuate it because
it's not truth. They have to keep it, keep it
going, keep it exciting because it's not true.
We have the Holy Spirit that is ready to do it through us if we,
if we let them. And so that's a, that's a good
reminder and a good challenge to us, not just to keep it in our
hearts or to know what the truth is, which is why it's so
important that, you know, God puts us in our own little
corner. You know the song Brighten the
corner where you are? I always thought it said right
in the corner where you are. When I was a kid, I didn't know
what the song meant, but brighten the corner where you
are. Most of us will never be in that
corner, right? I forget what school you're at,
Brother Paul, but I'll probably never even step foot in that
school. But that's your corner.
He'll never meet most of the guys at Columbia Gas, but that's
my corner. And we each have our own little
corner that we are entrusted to, to keep, to hold fast and to to
give that gospel to those in our corner.
So great reminder. Go ahead and stand with me.
We'll play a couple verses of invitation.
And if God has spoken to your heart, you come forward and deal
with Him.