This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
He's basically saying, OK, look, for me, it's just about over.
I'm about to reach my goal, which is to be with Jesus
Christ. But for you, Timothy, I'm
passing the baton. And before I do that, there's
another charge that I want to give to you.
And he says, I charge you therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead.
It kind of gives you an idea of the weight or of the importance
of this charge. I'm sure you've never done this,
but you know, some people are pretty forgetful.
I'm sure you've never forgotten to do something that you were
asked to do by, say, your spouse or maybe your parents as a
child. But what if you had something
really important to do? What if you were given a task
that was a bit more critical than just taking out the
garbage? Today, Pastor Lewis wants to
convey to you the weight of those things that have been
commissioned to you from God himself in His Word.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Second Timothy, Chapter
4, with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
I pray that you would speak, that you would preach to us,
that you would teach us your doctrines today, Lord, that you
would give us a picture of just what it is that you want to
share with us today, Lord, that we would go home changed, that
we will go home more in love with you, that we will go home
looking more and more like your Son Jesus.
Have mercy on us, Lord, extend your grace to us today.
Manifest your spirit. We need you Lord, we need you.
If you don't manifest your spirit Lord, then we have
gathered for nothing. So feed us in Jesus name we
pray, Amen. So we are in chapter 4.
Let's just start to read there beginning at verse one.
Paul says I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing
and his Kingdom. Preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort
with all long-suffering and teaching, for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own desires. Because they have itching ears.
They will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn
their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables or
myths. But you be watchful in all
things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry. We're going to stop there.
As we go back and begin to just make comments.
I was just thinking about Paul as we get into this study.
Paul's coming to the end of his life and he continues to really
relish this time that he has. And, and he's alone at this
time. And I'm sure he's with his
thoughts and his thoughts are bombarding him about his life
and he's thinking about the things that he's experienced.
And even more so, he's thinking about the things that he can
impart to his son in the faith, Timothy.
And I was just thinking about Paul.
You know, if Paul was, if we were to see the highlights of
Paul's life in ministry, what would that look like?
Well, it would look, it would look entirely different from
what we see with these, with these athletes and, and, and the
people, the coaches and the people that are involved in the
NFL. It will look totally different.
Their highlights all glorify them.
It, it, it, it, it makes them look grand.
It makes them look great. Paul's highlights would probably
not be the same. When you watch the highlights of
a athlete you're thinking about, wow, wouldn't it be great to be
able to do that? Wouldn't it be great to
experience that? Wouldn't it be great to have
that in my in in my repertoire? But I don't think you would feel
that way about the things that Paul had to go through in his
life. You know, his highlights would
be glorious to the Lord and glorious to to heaven.
But to the common man, his highlights wouldn't be anything
that we would run into trying to do.
You know, we always say here, I always say here that, you know,
the Bible is not about great men who do great things for God.
It is not about that. The Bible is about a great God
who does great things through mere men.
That's what the Bible was about. So we don't glorify men as we
talk about the Bible, but we acknowledge the power of God
working through these men, just like we acknowledge the power of
God who works through each and everyone of you in your
ministries. Paul was a special brother.
There's no question about that. We call him the gospel
globetrotter. Paul's the one that went from
place to place and spread the gospel every single place he
went. But his highlights would be
about his stoning, getting stoned.
His highlights would be about enduring his persecutions.
It would be about being imprisoned.
It would be about being beaten, being scores.
It would be about him being dragged out of synagogues when
he's preached the gospel. His highlights would be about
calling out demons and calling out devils and preaching the
gospel to people and people getting saved under his
ministry. It would be about him setting up
churches and developing elders and all these special things
that Paul has done in the ministry.
And all these things didn't glorify him.
It glorifies the God who works through him.
And if we see how special Paul is, we have to acknowledge the
fact that Paul was working through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Every time he preached, every
time he prayed for somebody, every time he called out a
demon, every time someone was healed, he did it through the
power of the Holy Spirit. And we need to understand that
we too need the Holy Spirit in our lives and whatever ministry
it is that we are in. So Paul comes to the end of his
life now. And this is probably the very
last chapter that Paul will write ever that he will write.
This is it. This is it.
Paul knows that he's looking at his mortality, but yet his
charge was to a young man who he's going to be passing the
baton to. He's basically saying, OK, look,
for me, it's just about over. I'm about to reach my goal,
which is to be with Jesus Christ.
But for you, Timothy, I'm passing the baton.
And before I do that, there's another charge that I want to
give to you. And he says, I charge you,
therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
judge the living and the dead. It kind of gives you an idea of
the weight or of the importance of this charge.
It gives you an idea of just how significant this urging is that
Paul is giving to Timothy. Look at the audience that he's
giving this oath to that he's giving this this testimony to.
He said, I'm charging you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now those are one, it may sound like it's two different people,
but in this in the Greek, this is actually one God and the Lord
Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead.
In other words, Timothy, I'm giving you this charge.
I'm giving you, I'm urging you to do something here.
And you have to remember, the one that I'm urging you in front
of is going to be the very same one that's going to come and
judge you as he's going to judge me.
So this is a very serious charge.
And what is that charge? It's the same charge that he's
been given Timothy all along. It's the same thread that goes
through this entire book, throughout the entire Pastoral
Epistles. It's the very same charge.
He says preach the word, Timothy, preach the word.
I can read this over and over and over again, and every time I
read it, it has significance to me.
Preach the word. He's telling Timothy, first of
all, what to preach, Timothy, preach the word.
Don't preach your experiences. Don't preach little short
stories. Don't preach clever lines.
Don't preach motivational speeches, preach the word,
Timothy, don't preach a word, don't preach A sermon, don't
preach a message. Preach the word, the word.
And and he's like I said throughout the entire Scripture,
this is what he's been encouraging Timothy to do.
And in First Timothy chapter 1 he says teach no other doctrine.
No other doctrine. In First Timothy chapter 3 he
said leaders should be able to teach.
In First Timothy chapter 4 he says, till I come, give
attendance to reading, exhortation, and teaching.
And then in Second Timothy chapter 1 he says, hold fast the
pattern of sound words. Second Timothy chapter 2 rightly
divide the word of truth and then in Second Timothy here in
chapter 4, he says preach the word.
So he has always encouraged Timothy to first of all stay
with the word and to preach the word because this is what Paul
did. No matter where he went, the
first thing he would do was walk into a synagogue and he would
preach the Word regardless of the circumstances.
And then he gives Timothy the conditions in which he should be
preaching. He gives him the conditions.
He says be ready in season and out of season.
There's two times, Timothy that you should be preaching this
word. Preach it in season and preach
it out of season. Those are the two times you
should be preaching this Word. It's not always convenient to
preach the Word, but you should preach the Word.
It's not always easy to preach the Word, but you should preach
the Word. The word that you're teaching is
not always easy to hear. But Timothy, preach the Word.
Preach the Word. Don't sugarcoat it.
Don't make it easier to go down. Don't put bread with it or some
other kind of sweet sauce to it to make it more palatable.
Timothy, preach the Word, preach the word, He says, be ready in
season and be ready out of season.
Do it all the time, he says. And the word should convince or
convict or correct. It should rebuke and it should
exhort. Every time one of us comes up
and teach this word, one of those three things should be
happening. It should either correct us.
It should either exhort us or encourage us or should warn us
or caution us. But the word should always have
impact is what Paul is saying. The word will always have
impact. And this is to be done with
long-suffering and teaching, or in other words, patience.
Paul is talking about patience because he understands that as
Timothy, as you speak to your congregation, everyone is not
going to be at the same place spiritually.
So people will need to be, you will need to be patient because
people are going to mature at different levels.
As we mature at different rates, we're going to mature
differently. So Timothy, be patient, but be
patient through teaching. Don't always want to just call
somebody out. Let the word change people,
Timothy. So do it through teaching.
Let the word help people to mature.
That's the importance of teaching the Word with patience.
And then he said for the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine. And that's why you should teach
the Word now, Timothy, because there's going to be a time when
there's going to be people who will not want to endure sound
doctrine. There will be a time when people
will want to not hear a word that convicts them.
They're not going to want to hear things that will hold the
mirror up to their lives and cause them to be able to see
what they look like or what we look like.
They might not want to hear that, Timothy, after a while,
they're not going to want to hear about righteousness.
They're not going to hear about holiness.
They only want to hear, you know, they're going to be
looking for people who will only teach the, you know, the
goodness of God or the mercy of God or the grace of God or the
love of God. They don't want to hear people
that's going to teach about the holiness of God and the law of
God or the righteousness of God. They're not going to want to
hear that. Want to hear people talk about
sin, things that I want to do. Don't call it sin.
That word sounds so bad when you call it sin, but it's things
that I want to do. They don't want to hear that,
Timothy. So preach the word because
they're not going to hear sound doctrine.
But because of but, but, but according to their own desires,
because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves
teachers. They'll just listen to the
teachers, Timothy, that they want to hear, the ones that's
going to make them feel good when they leave every time.
They'll never hear about things that I need to change in my life
or or never hear a word that convicts me or challenges me
about things that I'm doing or things that I'm thinking about
the way that I'm treating people about my unforgiveness.
They don't want to hear a word that challenges that.
They want to hear something that just makes them feel good, that
just makes them feel good, something that just motivates
them, you know, 5 steps to acquire, you know, to acquiring
wealth, 5 steps to a good marriage, 5 steps to, you know,
to, to really being able to excel in business, 5 steps to
making myself a better person. Hear things like that instead of
the things that the Bible teaches us about change, about
holiness, about the things the Bible teaches us about
obedience. They're not going to hear that,
Timothy. And then they said they're going
to turn away their ears from those things.
They're going to turn away their ears from the truth.
And they're going to turn to fables, turn aside to myths, to
fables, to turn aside to things that are not lined up with the
word of God. Turn aside to prosperity
teaching or turn aside to, you know, it being OK to live with
somebody or turn aside to those things that say everybody's
going to heaven. You know, turn aside to teaching
like that because it's easier for them to listen to as opposed
to being challenged through the word.
But then in verse 5, he says, but you Timothy, so he's
switching gears here, Timothy. That's what they that that may
be what they want to hear. That may be where the false
teachers are. That may be where people were
the unbelievers are or people who are being challenged in
their faith. That may be where they are.
But you, Timothy, as a pastor, I want you, Timothy, to be
watchful in all things. In other words, that that that
that word means to be sober in all things to be sober.
And there's a lot of things that can be intoxicating to us that
causes us to not think clearly and a lot of things that causes
us to not have self-control. To be sober means to have to
think clear and to have self-control.
To be sober mean to not be under intoxicating influence.
That's what it means to be sober, to think clearly, to act
clearly. But there's things out there
that we can listen to or things that we allow to get into our
hearts that will cause us to not think clearly, that will cause
us to not act under self-control, and it causes us
to act like we're under the influence.
We can be under the influence of bad things.
Intoxicating teaching can put us under the influence and cause us
to act that way. And he says, Timothy, be careful
that. Be watchful, be watchful.
The things that you allow to come into your ear gates.
Be watchful. Parents, be watchful.
The things that come into your kids ear gates.
Be watchful the things that come into your eye gates, the things
that you allow your eyes to look upon, David said in Psalms 119.
Turn my eyes away from empty things because he knows that to
look at things that are empty can be intoxicating and it can
change you. And he says, Timothy, I want you
to turn away from those things. Guard your ear gates, guard your
eye gates, guard your heart. For out of it are the issues of
life. So, Timothy, be careful and be
watchful. Be aware of the things that
people were saying around you, the things that people were
teaching. Be aware of that.
Be aware of the things that you listen to, the things that you
read. Be aware of those things.
You know, one thing, I, I, I look, you know, Pastor Clark is
very well read, very well read lot more well read than I am.
And there are books that can sometimes appear to be OK, but
once you get into them, you read them, you'll find out that it
that it's not that it does not line up with the word of God.
It does not. And a lot of times, before you
even have to open up the book and be exposed to that, Pastor
Clark will have known something about it in some degree.
I mean, it's amazing how many times that he's been able to
hear an author's name or hear a book that has that has come out
and he's aware of where that book goes, how that book
separates from the Word of God very well read that way.
We have to be careful of those things.
That's why it's so much easier to just stick with the Word of
God. We don't have to worry about it.
You know, if I swim in my swimming pool, I don't have to
worry about, you know, having to worry about any drop offs or any
surprises. You know, if I'm swimming in my
own swimming pool, you know, I have to worry about anything
that's going to surprise me. You know, I know what's in it.
I know what's in my pool, so I don't have to worry about it.
But if I'm swimming out there in some place that's open, where
anything can have access to me, that can be a problem.
That can be a problem. But he said be watchful in all
things. Then he says, endure
afflictions. And this is another thing that
has been consistent throughout Timothy's life and throughout
Paul's life as he has endured afflictions.
Paul can definitely talk about enduring fictions.
Back in chapter 3, we just talked about the afflictions
that he endured over in Antioch and in Iconium and in Lyster
where he actually suffered the stoning that took his life or
could have taken or we think that actually did take his life.
So Paul knows a lot about enduring afflictions.
And these are all along with these, you know, the commands
that Paul gave to Timothy. The first was breach the word
and the second is be watchful in all things.
And now the third here is endure afflictions and endure
patiently, not just go through them complaining, not go through
them, you know, murmuring, not go through them, you know, with
a bad attitude, but endure afflictions, endure it in a way
that it brings glory to God. When you go through changes on
your job that may afflict you, that may cause some discomfort
to your may interrupt the way that you do things on your job,
how do you do it? Do you do it with, by
complaining and murmuring? Do we talk about the boss?
Do we, you know, do we get with the water cooler crew and, and
put down the people who are making the decisions?
Or do we go through it patiently, just trusting the
Lord that he will work it out, that he will work it out.
That's what makes us different. That's what makes us different.
And so he says endure afflictions and then he says, do
the work of an evangelist, do the work of an evangelist.
Now the word evangelist is only mentioned three times in in the
Bible. The first time it's mentioned is
in the book of of Acts in chapter 21 where he refers to
Philip as an evangelist. The next time it's mentioned is
over in Ephesians chapter 4. When, when, when, when Paul
talks about the gifts that Jesus left with the church and one of
those gifts was an evangelist for the purpose of equipping the
Saints. And then of course, here in
second Timothy chapter 4, he mentions the evangelists or, or,
or evangelism. Now, evangelism is very
important. It's very important to the whole
gospel. It's the what they call the pre
salvation preaching is what they call evangelism, pre salvation
preaching because it's the, it's the word.
It's the one that introduces you to the gospel.
People were introduced to the gospel through evangelism.
And then, of course, once they become believers, they are
discipled through the word of God and they're learning the
doctrines and they're coming here and they're being taught
the gospel are coming other churches and they're being
taught the, you know, how to live the life that they were
just birthed into. But the purpose of evangelism is
to equip and encourage believers to share the gospel, to share
that good news and to live that gospel out.
He preaches the gospel and calls for repentance is what an
evangelist does. He calls for repentance.
He, he causes us or lets us know that we can repent and we can
turn from that old lifestyle and, and, and, and anyone who's
listening who have not given their hearts to the Lord or not
trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation, repentance is open
for you. It's available for you.
Evangelism is what we're doing right now is just sharing the
gospel. Jesus Christ died for your sins
and we are all sinners and Jesus Christ died for those sins.
He died for those sins and we all are sinners.
Everyone of us have sinned and I've come short of the glory of
God and that sin will have to be dealt with.
The wages of sin is death according to the word of God.
That's the wrath that unrepentant sinners have to face
is death. But Jesus Christ came and died
for our sins. He was buried three days, He
laid in the grave, and then he arose.
And that gives us our hope for eternal life.
Anyone who's listening who have not trusted Jesus Christ for
your Savior, you can repent right now.
You don't even have to say it out loud.
You can repent at home, but it's available through the grace of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So he says, do the work of an evangelist and then he says,
fulfill your ministry, fulfill your ministry, finish your
ministry. You know, have your ministry,
you know, whatever it is that the Lord called you to do.
Here on Living Waters of Grace, we're in the books of First and
Second Timothy. Pastor Lewis Harrell is walking
us through these letters written from Paul to Timothy.
Toward the end of these letters, Paul is anticipating that his
time here on earth is coming to a close.
He's giving some final words of advice to his mentee.
Paul writes in Second Timothy 4, verse seven.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith. Wherever you are in your journey
of faith with God, our hope is that you have the willingness to
fight for what's true, not compromising, but holding fast
to the Word of God. Paul was reminding Timothy of
this, and it's a good reminder for you and for me today, too.
For helpful input throughout this series, why not listen to
all of these teachings from First and Second Timothy on our
website? Go to calvarychapelonline.com to
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