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.
Boy, don't we all need that refreshing sometime.
We need it from each other. We need it from the Holy Spirit.
We just need a refreshing. Most of us are here right now to
be refreshed, to sit under word, to have to get away from the
toils of life Monday through Saturday and deal with all those
pressures and all those turns, all the political stuff, all
that. Get away from all that and let's
just sit under the word of God and be refreshed.
Be refreshed. Isn't that why you've tuned in
to listen to Living Waters of Grace?
You find yourself smack dab in the middle of the struggles of
this life, working the 9:00 to 5:00, clawing to get those bills
paid, striving to see that child walk in obedience to the Lord.
I'll need refreshment in our souls and spirits.
You need to hear the Word of God.
Drink it in and truly experience the living waters of Grace.
And there's nothing like it. There's nothing in this world
that can compare to the refreshment that Jesus brings to
us now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
of Second Timothy, chapter one with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Let's pray and then we'll get
into the Word, Father God in Jesus name.
Lord, we do thank You once again that we have the privilege of
sitting under Your Word, Lord, and hearing Your Word, being
taught Your word, not by me, Lord, but by Your Spirit and
Father, I need Your spirit now. We all need a filling of Your
spirit, regardless of what is said.
Lord, how logical we may sound. You are the one who gives us the
understanding, the revelation, the illumination of Your Word
that comes from You. So Father, I pray as I give
myself away to you and make myself available for you to use
this broken vessel. I pray Father, that you would
just fill me up with Your Spirit.
Allow Your Spirit to be overflowed so that we all will
be able to receive the seed of the Word in our hearts and that
our lives will be changed by make us more like your Son,
Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus
name we pray, Amen. So as we go back to chapter 1,
the end of chapter 1 and we look at verses 13, we're going to
review verse 13 again because it is significant.
It's very significant, particularly as we go forward
and what he says here, what Paul says here, and remember, this is
Paul who is facing imminent death.
I want to keep reminding us of that because this is not like
it's just two men sitting and talking who have equal, you
know, it's an equal place or in the same place.
Paul is facing imminent death and he knows that.
And the things that he is sharing with Timothy are the
things that he's receiving from the Lord that's on his heart
that Timothy will need. He's passing the mantle to
Timothy and basically saying, Timothy, I'm not going to be
here anymore. You are going to have to carry
the mantle, brother, young son. So therefore we need, I need you
to hear me. I need you to listen.
And there's some things that I need to impart in you before I
depart. So he goes in here, verse 13,
and he says, once again, we talked about it last week.
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from
me in faith and love what you're in Christ Jesus.
So Paul is saying, it's not just the fact that you're hearing
sound words from me and you just repeat what you hear, but it's
important that you hold the form of the way that you're getting
this. Hold the form.
Don't change it, Timothy, and don't allow anyone else to
change it. Don't add to it and don't take
away from it. It's important that you hold the
pattern of the Word just the way you're getting it, just the way
you're getting it when you share the gospel.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever shall believe on him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. That's the gospel.
First Corinthians chapter 15, The Bible says that Christ died
for our sins. He was buried and that he arose
again according to the Scriptures.
That's the gospel, Timothy. Don't change that and don't
allow anyone else to change it. That's coming into your
ministry. It's very important to hold fast
the form of sound doctrine. But then he goes on and he says,
do that in faith and love. We have to believe what we're
teaching. So not only do we do it
faithfully, meaning that we're holding the form of God
faithfully, where we're being reverent to it, we're being
faithful to what we've been taught.
Not only are we doing it faithfully, but our lives are
faithful to it so that the testimony in the presentation of
the testimony has the backing of the power of God working through
our lives. We cannot underestimate the
power of God working in us to establish and to make clear the
gospel and the power of God's Word when someone who knows you.
Clark talks about this all the time because, you know, there's
people, we're here, you know, we're here in Greensburg.
And I'm sure there's people who knew him when he lived in Irwin.
And Clark talks about his old hippie days and, and how the
people knew him back when he was a hippie.
So a lot of those people would probably say, wait a minute, he
is a pastor of the church him. And if you were to go back to
Stilton and Harrisburg and you would talk to people and say,
yeah, Lewis is a pastor. He's a pastor.
Are you sure, Lewis, that played here, that was here in Stilton,
that's that's a pastor. There's no way they believe it.
But it's only by the power of God who's able to change lives.
And just like he's changed your lives, every one of us have that
testimony. He's able to change lives.
So he says, look, do it in faith, but also do it in love.
When we speak, we speak the truth in love.
We speak the truth in love. This gospel is saturated with
love. It was love that took Jesus to
the cross. It was love that had the the
Father to send Jesus to die for our sins.
That's all saturated in love. It's motivated in love.
Everything Jesus did when He walked here on the earth for 3
1/2 years was motivated by love, right down to the giving of His
own life. So when we speak the word, we
should speak it in love. And this is in Christ Jesus.
And then in verse 14, it says that good thing which was
committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you,
that good thing, that deposit, that treasure, that treasure
that was given to you, that was committed to you, it was
entrusted to you When someone shared the gospel with you, I
don't know if you knew it then, but know it now.
They shared a treasure with you. It's valuable, more valuable
than gold and silver. It's a treasure that you
receive, and when you meditate on that word and you study that
word, it's a treasure that's in you that now you can impart and
share with other people. It's a treasure.
And so he said that treasure, that deposit that was committed
to you, he says keep it not by your strength, Timothy.
Don't try to keep it by your strength.
Don't try to keep it by your own will, but keep it by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit, once again we
see the significance and it runs through the entire Bible when we
see the significance of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot do this Christian walk without the Holy Spirit.
And the more that we get into the study, because God is
directing us toward understanding endurance as we
move into chapter 2, but the more we move into this study,
you will see that there's no way that we can do any of this
without the grace of God through the Holy Spirit.
There's no way we can do it. No way.
So he goes on and he said, who dwells in us?
Not what dwells in US, Who dwells in US?
Holy Spirit is a person. Now this, you know, now he's
changing gears here. He's changing gears and he says
this, you know that all those in Asia have turned away from me,
among whom are 5 jealous and homogenies Now that everybody
turned away from Paul. I don't know.
You know how I mean, sometimes as men we can be a little, you
know, extreme. You know, you always do that.
You say that all the time. You know, we can be a little
extreme. Everybody turned away from me.
I don't know if everyone turned away from Paul, but I tell you
what, it's very clear that there are two men in particular that
turned away from Paul. And these are obviously these
were men who at one point were trustworthy men with him, men
who were close to him, men that he probably imparted this
treasure to. Phi Jealous and homogenies.
He pointed them out. How would you like to be one of
those people that know? Paul pointed out, and it's in
the word of God now it's in the word of God.
And everybody who will ever read this will know that you betrayed
Paul, that you betrayed Paul. But Phi Jealous and Homogenies,
among them are these two men who turned away from him.
But he's also saying, but I want to be fair.
I want to be fair to Phi Jealous into homogenies.
At that particular time, they were going through tremendous
persecution, tremendous. And if you weren't really rooted
and grounded in the faith, if the Spirit was not in you, then
it would be very, very difficult for you to be able to stay the
course because the threat of death was always with you.
The threat of death was always there.
Just being associated with Jesus Christ being in the way is what
they called it. It was the threat of that was
always there, always there. And I'm sure there were many
people, you know, who felt like, well, you know, I can't, I can't
do this. I can't do this.
I mean, my family, they want to cut off my head.
They want to, you know, kill me. They want to torture me.
They want to throw me in jail just because I'm following
Jesus. I can't do this.
I'm sure there's a lot of people who felt that way and they
turned away. And this is probably some of the
people that that Paul is talking about.
But in particular, we're probably these two men who were
close to him. They turned away, could not deal
with it. And that's part of why Paul is
going to be going into the whole endurance issue.
But he does give Timothy a good example.
He says, Timothy, don't be like these two guys, you know, who
give up and give out and turn away, you know, begin to deny
God and turn away from Jesus Christ and turn away from me.
Don't want to be associated with me because it's dangerous to be
associated with someone like Paul, you know, who the at that
particular time almost an entire state wanted to kill.
So he says don't be like them. But there is a good example that
I have here, a Niciphoris, which is really interesting because
Arnisiphoris, you know, was he was Ephesian, he was from
Ephesus family and they all believed.
They all believed his name actually means bringing prophet
or to be useful. That's his name.
That's what his name means. And he says here that Arnisor,
he said the Lord grant mercy to the household of Arnisorus, for
he refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
And that's exactly what the issue was.
A lot of the other people were ashamed to be associated with
Paul. And that a shame mean
disappointed, disillusioned, like, Oh my God, I'm following
this and this may be my end, this may be what I have to deal
with, and they fall away. But this Unnisrius, he wasn't
even from the Paul's in Rome at this time.
Remember that Paul's in Rome at this time.
Unnisrius is still in Ephesus. And as the Word says here, he
came and refreshed Paul. Boy, don't we all need that
refreshing sometime. We need it from each other.
We need it from the Holy Spirit. We just need a refreshing.
Most of us are here right now on Sundays.
We come here every Sunday to be refreshed, to sit under word, to
have to get away from the toils of life Monday through Saturday
and deal with all those pressures and all those turns,
all the political stuff, all that.
Get away from all that and let's just sit under the word of God
and be refreshed. Be refreshed.
Have someone speak an encouraging word instead of
someone talking a doom word or giving me a doomsday word.
Oh, we're done. We're not.
Oh, it's not going to get any better.
This is it. Hopeless word.
But we can come on Sunday and hear an encouraging word from
the Lord. He refreshed Paul.
I don't know how he refreshed him.
I don't know if he refreshed him with clothing or refreshed him
with with food or with drink, because I'm sure he didn't have
that in abundance. So he refreshed him or did he
just refresh him by his encouragement to Paul?
Brother, hang in there man, hang in there.
There's many people that you have blessed that you have
shared the gospel with, Paul, and those people are living for
the Lord. Hang in there, Paul.
You're doing all right, brother. God is with you, Paul.
He's holding you up. I'm here because God loves you.
Isn't it awesome when you get a call from someone that you're
not expecting to get a call from?
Or you get a text or an e-mail from someone that you're not
expecting to hear from and it's right out of time when you need
it the most. Because maybe you were going
through some challenges, going through some difficulties,
having some time, struggling with your face, struggling with
your circumstances. And all of a sudden your, your
phone rings and you pick up the phone and there's someone
calling with a message to encourage you, someone sending
you an encouraging e-mail, sending you a scripture that's
encouraging you. A thought or just to say, you
know what I was thinking about you.
I was thinking about you. Sometimes we can feel really
alone and isolated in this walk with the Lord.
But when someone can call you and tell you, I was thinking
about you, that's of the Lord. That is of the Lord.
And this is what initiatives, you know, he came and he, he
refreshed Paul. He wasn't ashamed of the message
that Paul was preaching, nor was he ashamed of his chains, Verse
17 says. But when he arrived in Rome, he
sought me out very zealously and found me the Lord.
Grant to him that he find mercy from the Lord in that day.
And you know very well how many ways he refreshed me from Rome.
Now here if you have a King James Version, it'll say refresh
me at Rome, but the translation of that is actually refreshed me
from Rome. So even while Paul was in Rome
on this wrist was sending and blessing him with with help and
refreshing him and it but that wasn't enough.
He actually came and searched out Paul.
He came and he travelled and searched Paul out so that he
could be a blessing to Paul, which again within itself was
just a work of the Spirit. Because just to be associated
with Paul, come looking for Paul, that means you're letting
yourself be known that you're a Christian too.
And that wasn't the best thing back at that particular time.
So he goes on here. So now we're about to move in to
Chapter 2. And this is going to make more
sense to you covering it from where we just came from.
Because you saw an example of men who gave up, gave out,
turned away, betrayed Paul because they just could not deal
with that anymore. Maybe even begin to give in to
strange doctrine because he just couldn't deal with it anymore.
So then here with Chapter 2, it says therefore, therefore that
means based on what I said to you previously, Timothy, based
on the fact that you got these two men, Homogenies and
Fragilis, who turned away from me and betrayed me.
And also you have a good example and omnisforous.
Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. So once again, Paul makes it
clear to Timothy. Timothy, I know that you've been
a little timid, sometimes a little fearful.
We talked about that earlier in Chapter 1.
He's been a little fearful, a little timid.
We also know that Timothy, his health wasn't all that great.
You know, Paul had told him a while back, look, I know your
stomach's a little, you know, a little bad.
So take some wine for your stomach.
His health is not all that great.
And then on top of that, he's young.
So Timothy really needed a lot of encouragement.
And he had a church that was right in one of the most Pagan
cities in the world in Ephesus, and he was the pastor of that
church. So he had to let Timothy know,
Timothy, you're not going to be able to lean on your own
strength, brother. So be strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus, be strong in the grace that is in him.
That grace is not only unmerited favor for Timothy that he would
be able to be in a place to be able to do this ministry, or
it's not just the fact that he's saved that we're all saved by
grace. It's not even just that, but to
be in the grace, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. That grace is also the
enablement for Timothy to be able to do all that the Lord has
called him and assigned him to do your ministries.
Whatever it is that God has given you to do your ministry,
you'll never be able to fulfill it.
If you try to depend on your own strength and your own power,
you'll never be able to do it. You're going to give out.
You're going to get frustrated.
We've all done it. We've all done it.
You get frustrated. You know you have to deal with
some opposition. That can wear you out.
We have tons of pastors all the time that's giving up their
churches because they can't deal with it anymore.
And if you're trying to do this in your own strength, I don't
care what your ministry is, You will not be able to do it.
If you're dependent on your own strength, your own wisdom, your
own logic, your own knowledge. You need the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. You need to grace this in Christ
Jesus. Pray for that grace, that
enablement that gives us what we need to do the ministry.
So he's saying to Timothy and these things, verse 2 and the
things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit
these to faithful men. And you know what, I love that
because when you go back and really look at what Paul was
talking about, these things that you heard from me.
Well, let's look at first of all, who did Paul get it from?
Right, Who did Paul get it from? If you go to the book of
Galatians, because you see, one of the things that we have to
learn is that the source of what is given to you or what is said
to you is just as important as what is said to you.
Kids got that down already. Kids got that down.
If you have more than one kid, I guarantee you, you've heard this
before, Johnny, cut off the TV and do your homework.
Who said everybody can relate to that, right?
If you got kids, you can relate to that.
Who said it's time to come in Now it's time for The Who said
it's always who said? Because kids understand that the
authority is not in what's being said.
The authority is in who's saying it.
If it's just my brother that's saying it, I'm ignore that.
But if they tell me mom or dad said it, OK, I'll do it.
Who said? And that's exactly what we need
to understand when it comes to doctrine, when it comes to the
word of God, when we're being preached something.
Who said, who said? Look at what he says here in
Galatians. This is what he says here.
Paul is letting Timothy know, just like he's letting us know
that what Paul is giving to Timothy, he didn't just get it
from man. See, when Paul got saved, he
didn't just go right to the men and ask them to teach him the
gospel. That's not what happened.
Paul was taught the gospel directly from the revelation of
Jesus Christ himself. Look at what it says here in
Galatians chapter one, verse 11. But I make known to you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not
according to man, verse 12 For I neither received it from man nor
was taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus
Christ. So Paul is saying what I'm
giving to you, Timothy. I got it from Jesus Christ.
This is legit. This is legit, this is for real.
You don't have to worry about questioning it.
So this is what I want you to share with other people.
So now we go back here to Second Timothy chapter 2 right there in
verse 2. And he says, and the things that
you heard from me among many witnesses, commit these things
to faithful men who will be able to teach others also, not just
to men. Don't just commit them to men,
but commit them to faithful men. Commit them to other men who
will handle this word faithfully and who will handle it
reverently. Other men who were faithful, men
who were seeking the Lord, faithfully seeking the Lord
themselves, Men who were sitting under the Word, Men who are
receiving and being fed the Word just as much as they're being
taught the word. This has been another
encouraging edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared some good reminders for us to
learn and walk in today as he's teaching through the books of
First and Second Timothy. There are useful practices and
advice that the Apostle Paul offers to Timothy in these
books. From a fellow pastor, Paul
imparts some wisdom to Timothy about solid leadership and what
some of the criteria should be for leadership.
There are specific passages directed toward men and women,
respectively. And All in all, there's much to
gain in coming to an awareness of God's heart for each person
and God's purposes for each one. We're happy that you've taken
the time today to listen and invite you to come here, the
next edition. In the meantime, when you have
some time to spare today, go check out our website,
calvarychapelonline.com. There you'll find additional
messages as well as a variety of resources and information about
how to meet with us in person. We're also on Facebook, so you
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Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. Before we go today, we ask that
you share this program with others and invite them to listen
on Grace FM at 91.7. That's all we have for today,
but we're so glad that you've been with us.
There's more to dig into here in First and Second Timothy, so
let's gear up for some more great teachings from Pastor
Lewis next time here on Living Waters of Grace.