In 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy, a young pastor in the city of Ephesus, to teach him how to fight the good fight of faith and the importance of fostering faithful conduct in the house of God. Paul also instructs him how to manage the affairs of the church.

One of the realities of pastoral ministry is that pastors often encounter many varied challenges. Paul himself said, “I fought with beasts in Ephesus.” Timothy was no different. He pastored in a pagan city and faced many difficulties. What is the solution? Hold fast to the Word of God which is “given by inspiration of God and is profitable” for everything. 

Okay, so open your Bibles to 1 Timothy, and we're going to do a survey of 1 and 2 Timothy, and let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would open up our eyes to see wondrous things from this holy and beautiful testimony of godliness, of good things to have today, and the good things to come. Amen. Well, 1 and 2 Timothy are... It's an exciting place for me to be today.

I preached through this book when I was a very young pastor in my twenties and it was very helpful to me as a young pastor. So you have an outline in front of you and it begins with the message of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. Paul is writing to a young pastor in the city of Ephesus and he may have been around 20 years old. He was a young man without question, exactly how young we don't know, But I have read a number of commentators that think he might have been around 20, 22, 23, something like that. He was in a wild town.

He was in Ephesus. He was in the town where there was that gigantic riot that Demetrius the silversmith stirred up because people were turning to God from their idols, burning their idols, and his business was having trouble. And so there was a gigantic riot in the amphitheater in Ephesus with 20, 000 people screaming crazily, great as Artemis of the Ephesians. And the scripture says that they didn't even really know why they were doing it, but it was a wild city. And I've been to modern Ephesus and walked through the ruins of the ancient city and it really is remarkable to think about the things that happened there in Ephesus.

Well, if Timothy was there, he's being instructed by the Apostle Paul regarding how to manage the Church of God, And he was a man under pressure. It was a very difficult mission. There were pressures within, pressures without, and he was ministering in a mission field that was very hostile to the gospel. The people in Ephesus had been acculturated in the perspectives and the practices of lawlessness, and Timothy was right there in the middle of it. And Paul is instructing him to fight the good fight and this is one critical thing that you need to know about Ephesians.

You learn that the Christian life is a fight and that there are actually fights that break out in the church and the Apostle Paul is helping Timothy to understand how he should navigate through the fight and through the trouble that he will encounter. Now vocations have their relative merits and demerits And one of the merits or demerits of pastoral ministry is that you might encounter trouble and Timothy bears witness to that. It's possible that he might have had ulcers as a result of the turmoil that was translated into his body. The Apostle Paul exhorts him as a spiritual father to drink a little wine for the stomach. We don't really know what was wrong with his stomach.

Something was wrong with his stomach and Paul was desiring to be a good father, to instruct him and to do things that might help his body. So he had a difficult task, he was under pressure and he was in this pagan city. And to give you even further visibility into this city, Paul said, I fought with beasts in Ephesus. And so you can read about this probably in Acts 19 where Paul's declaring that he fought with beasts is probably referenced, but he was in circumstances that would terrify even the boldest and most fearless Christians. Also, false doctrine had to be addressed and erased in this church.

Public worship was being compromised by different influences. There were women who are thinking wrongly about their role in the local church, and elders needed to be appointed and properly qualified, and there was Timothy, a young man. It was a little bit of a liability to be in a place like that, but Paul urges him to be bold, hold on, seek the Lord, and continue to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's one of the most remarkable admonitions from a spiritual father to a young man. Don't give up.

Remain on in Ephesus. And this is an admonition that every person in a church should heed. Remain on. Don't give up too soon. The sun will come out again.

Fight the good fight, but don't give up in the evil day. Do your duty and confront evil that's there and stay on and trust God. That's an undercurrent of this testimony here. Now let's talk about the historical context, the second element on your outline. Christianity had become illegal when Timothy was in Ephesus.

Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy from Macedonia probably in 62 or 63 AD when Timothy was in Ephesus. It's possible that it was written earlier. There's lots of discussion about when it was written. But in 64 AD, the burning of Rome had already taken place, and Timothy was imprisoned in 67 AD. And so it's a very difficult environment.

And the very end of 2 Timothy, Paul urges him to come to see him. He's most likely at the end of his life in a Roman prison. And he says to him in 2 Timothy 4, 9, be diligent to come to me quickly. And then he speaks of how he's been forsaken and abandoned by so many people in verse 10. He speaks about Alexander the coppersmith who did him much harm.

He says no one stood with me at my first offense and then he tells Timothy come before winter. There's an urgency. Paul probably believes he's on his last legs of life and he's speaking to his spiritual son to come and be with him. So that's the historical context. Now the reason for writing is stated very clearly, and of course it's a personal letter to encourage a young pastor and to instruct him.

Notice that this is a letter written to an individual. This is not a letter like Romans or Corinthians or Philippians or Colossians. It is written to an individual and it's like Philemon and it's like Titus. But there are a few letters that were written to individuals. So it's a very personal counsel for a man that the Apostle Paul loved dearly and knew quite well.

And why did Paul write? There are two reasons that are explicitly stated in the text, and the first is that he should not quit, and this is in chapter 1 verse 3, remain on at Ephesus. You know, we're all tempted to quit things from time to time, and here's the truth. It's almost always too soon to quit. Hang on.

God will protect you. He'll sustain you. One of the difficulties, particularly of young people, is that they might get discouraged easy and want to go do something different. And the Apostle Paul is addressing Timothy on that level. So the first reason is remain on at Ephesus.

Longevity, diligence, persistence is one of the most important qualities you can have. Develop it early so that as you go through your life you won't be a quitter. Why would Paul say remain on at Ephesus like I told you before? Because most likely he wanted to quit. So the letter really brings up the whole issue of facing a life of difficulty on the one hand, grappling with the internal inclination or tendency to quit, and the fruits of sticking it out and continuing the fight.

And every person needs to understand how important those things are. And the second reason for writing is found in Chapter 3, verse 15, where there's a very clear statement for why he wrote the letter. Paul says, I write so that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Timothy was in a city that had a new church and he is writing to Timothy to help him know how to conduct himself in a Church of God and what to instruct those who are in the Church of God so that they would uphold the truth of God in their society. And so there's a conduct that one must understand when they are part of the Church of God.

And the question is, do you understand what your conduct should be like in the Church of God? There are very specific things that God calls Christians to be and to do in the house of God. And Paul is instructing Timothy, both for himself how to conduct himself and also how to teach those to conduct themselves in the house of God. And he speaks of the church in very glowing terms. He says that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth.

This is one of the great purposes of the Church in the world, to uphold the truth. While truth is being trampled, while relativism is running rampant in a society like ours, there must be an institution that will stand up for the truth. That institution is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The people in the church are walking truth-tellers. Wherever they go, they have the truth of God on their lips.

This is one of the great and beautiful functions of the Church, to uphold the truth. And the problem is, no matter what society you live in, truth is being trampled on, and the church has been appointed by God to uphold the truth because the church is the pillar and ground of the truth And so as we live our lives together here in the church, we have to recognize why we're here in the world. We're not here for ourselves. We're here to uphold something greater than ourselves, the truth. Let's talk about Timothy the man in this third element of your outline.

First and second Timothy are these two letters from Paul. They are written to what Paul calls his faithful son in the faith. Paul was from Lystra, which was the city that Timothy also lived in in his younger days. It's quite likely that Paul led Timothy to Christ in Lystra on his first missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts chapter 14 verses 6 through 23. Acts 16 1 through 3 tells us that Paul was from Lystra.

So they hailed from the same town and they had something in common. You know how that works. You know, you're with somebody in some part of the world and you're talking to them and they say that they're from such and such part of the world. And you say, well that's where I'm from. And there's an immediate connection.

Well, the Apostle Paul and Timothy had that connection. Timothy came from a family of a mixed marriage. His father was a Greek, and his mother was a faithful daughter of Zion. She was an Israelite who taught Timothy the Holy Scriptures from the time he was young. And we don't know anything else about Timothy's father except that he was a Greek.

Most believe that he was a pagan and that he was married to a righteous Israelite. And so in this letter the older is instructing the younger. He's writing to an inexperienced pastor. I'll never forget preaching through this book in my mid-20s when I was a pastor of a church in California. And I'll never forget having to preach the words, remain on at Ephesus.

I was a young man who was facing difficulties nothing like the Apostle Paul and Timothy faced. But you know you're tempted to give up when things are difficult. But we also know that Timothy had been taught the Scriptures from an early age. You'll see that in 2 Timothy 3.15. We learned from Philippians 2 19 through 24 that Timothy was Paul's most trusted emissary.

Listen to what Paul says about Timothy. He says, I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state. We learn two things from that verse, verse 20. The apostle Paul and Timothy thought alike. They, I'm sure, loved to talk.

They had very, very similar opinions and they love to be together, and Paul believed that Timothy cared for the state of other people's souls just like he did. In verse 21 he says, "...for all the others seek their own, not the things which are of Christ. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. Therefore I hope to send him at once as soon as I see how it goes with me." So Paul had the utmost confidence in Timothy. He thought like Timothy, he loved Timothy, and he thought very highly of Timothy.

From 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 2 we learn that Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica to study that church. It was being afflicted in many different ways and Paul sent Timothy specifically to that church so that they would not be shaken from their faith. Timothy must have been a very encouraging brother. He was able to bring people together and give them courage and hope for the future even when they were being battered by afflictions from their ungodly society. From 1st Corinthians 417 we learned that Timothy taught the Corinthian church how to understand the gospel and how to deal with those who were puffed up and those who were critical, the Apostle Paul.

So he was a faithful man. We also know that he was a common partner with Paul in the ministry. They were together quite a bit. Timothy was with Paul when he wrote Colossians, when he wrote Philippians, when he wrote Thessalonians, and when he wrote Philemon. And you'll learn that just by turning to the first verses of each one of those letters.

Paul was with Timothy quite a bit and he really was a true son of the faith. We also learned that Timothy did experience imprisonment in Hebrews 13 23. We learned that Timothy was at one point imprisoned and then he was released. So that's sort of a flyover of the book and some of the things that are raised here in these two letters. Now let's jump into the book itself and we'll just start with chapter 1 and 1st Timothy and we're going to walk our way through these two letters and try to pick up some of the highlights.

In your outline you can see the first section is devoted to this appeal from Paul to Timothy that goes like this, Don't give up. Remain on at Ephesus. After Paul gives his greeting in the first two verses and calls him a true son in the faith, the Apostle Paul begins to urge Timothy not to run. And one of the things that you learn about Timothy and the Apostle Paul is that there is pain and there is failure in their lives. And that's why in 118 you find this record of the trouble that the Apostle Paul was experiencing.

Even Hymenaeus and Alexander were blaspheming. He had been abandoned. In chapter 1 verse 6, some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law. What we learn about pastoral leadership is that It must be the kind of leadership that doesn't run from problems. It actually runs toward problems.

We see this example in the Apostle Paul. Remember in Corinth, there are so many troubles in Corinth. Divisions, immorality, hero worship, selfishness, misuse of the gifts. And what did Paul do? Well, he addressed the problems and he's encouraging Timothy to do the very same things, to gravitate toward the areas of need.

Here's a really critical principle that I really hope you will remember from this message. The more you run, the less you grow. The more you run, the less you grow. It's God that brings trials into your life to improve you, to grow you, to mature you, so that you would see the greatness of His sufficiency. Every joy or trial falleth from above, and it's traced upon the dial of the Son of Love, and Timothy was experiencing it.

Now Paul wanted Timothy to confront wrong views of the law. There are very few things that are misunderstood and misrepresented as the law of God, and there were troubles in understanding the law of God in Ephesus where Timothy was. So Paul says, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, and he speaks that they have turned aside to idle talk desiring to be teachers of the law. And he's saying they want to be teachers of the law, but they're not teaching the law properly. And then in verse 8 through 11 in chapter 1, he begins to confront the wrong uses of the law.

And he declares to Timothy in verse 8, But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully." And so then he's going to speak about what a lawful use of the law is. He says, "...knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust." Now what he's saying is that the law is good for a particular purpose and that is to expose sin. God gave the law to expose sin in order to teach his children how to walk in righteousness. Its design is to drive you to Christ who is sinless because your sins have been revealed so that you would flee to Jesus Christ for your salvation. The law was not designed to save.

The law was designed to drive a sinner to salvation. And then the Apostle Paul speaks of his own background and I think he does this. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who enabled me because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. That's in verse 12. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." So what is Paul saying? He's saying a wrong use of the law is that it secures your salvation. A right use of the law is that it exposes your sin, and when your sins are exposed, what happens to you? Paul says, you become like me. You realize what a blasphemer you are, and you turn to the grace of Jesus Christ.

I think Paul is saying it was the law that condemned him and drove him to Christ. And then he gives some insight on why he believes this happened to him. That in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life." In other words, God struck Paul with the law to condemn him of his sin so that he would turn to Christ and he would be an example of how God saves really, really bad people. Very, very terrible lawbreakers like Paul can be saved. And he was saved so that he would show God's long suffering with sinners.

And God chose Paul to show people that there's hope. And the truth is no one has ever fallen too far into sin, but that they can't be rescued by God. It's the sick that need a physician. And the law shows you your sickness so that you turn to the great physician. And then Paul urges Timothy to fight the good fight of faith in verse 18, that he would wage warfare.

And then after calling Timothy's life a life of warfare, actually good warfare, he then turns in chapter 2 to give various instructions to how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God. And the first thing he speaks about is prayer. And he says, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men and for kings." So the church should be a praying church and he makes it very clear in verse 5 in chapter 2 that there's one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, and He gave Himself as a ransom for all. And Jesus Christ as mediator is an intercessor for sinners. And so The Apostle Paul tells the church and Timothy to urge them to not stop praying.

And then he gives instructions about the life and adornment of women in the church. Chapter 2 verses 9 through 15. And he says that he does desire men to pray everywhere, lifting up their holy hands without wrath and doubting, and then after that in verse 9 he turns to women in the church, and he speaks about how women have an impact in the church and what they ought and ought not to do, and he begins with the way that they present themselves. He speaks of their adornment, their outer adornment, and this is one of the great texts on women's apparel and the subject of modesty. God does instruct women regarding how they should dress and so He says, "...in like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works." So he speaks of the way that women should dress and he basically tells them that they should pay attention to getting caught up in fashion and then he speaks of how they should conduct themselves in the church.

In verse 11 he says, Let a woman learn in silence with all submission, and I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence. And then he gives the reason for it, and it's the creation order, for Adam was formed first and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression." So he's speaking of the fact that women are not to be teachers in the Church of Jesus Christ, but they should be learners, great learners, but not great speakers. And then after speaking regarding women in the church, he moves on to the office of elder, and in chapter 3 verses 1 through 7 there are these qualifications for elders. It matters what kind of men are leading the Church of God, and there are these various qualifications on various different categories of life. And of course, an elder's family life matters because how an elder functions in his family will cause the church to function in a particular way.

And how a man treats his family will have an impact on the way the man treats the church, and you'll often find this. Flaws in men's family lives find themselves coming out in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are many qualifications that are listed here in verses 1 through 7, and then he turns to qualifications of deacons in the Church of Jesus Christ. And so in verse 8 in chapter 3 he says that likewise deacons must be reverent not double-tongued not given to much wine not greedy for money holding to the mystery of the faith of the pure conscience and then he says deacons should be tested and he gives also qualifications for their wives, because a deacon's wife must be a certain kind of woman as well. And then in verse 14 of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul turns to speak of this great mystery of godliness, and he speaks of this great mystery of godliness in the context of how one conducts himself in the house of God.

And so this matter of how one conducts themselves in the household of God is a reflection of this mystery of godliness. We function in the church in a particular way because, as we read in verse 16, God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed in the world, received up in glory. Our lives in the church are a result of God manifesting Himself in the flesh through His Son and raising Himself up to glory. And then in chapter 4 there is the reality that's explained of this great apostasy and the problems of being holy in an unholy world. And he speaks in verse 1 of chapter 4 of later times, of the latter times, the last days.

The last days began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they end with the second coming of Jesus Christ. These are the last days. We are living in the last days. And during these last days, you will experience particular kinds of things and you'll encounter doctrines of demons, you'll encounter lies, you'll encounter hypocrisy, You'll encounter legalistic people who command that you abstain from foods, which God gave for the purpose of Thanksgiving. But he says when you're living in this kind of a world, here's what you should do.

And this is really helpful advice. Verse 6, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. So how do you make your way in this wicked and perverse generation where you have such terrible pressures upon you? Nourish yourself in the words of faith and of good doctrine and follow it. This is what Christians ought to do.

They ought to have their eyes on the doctrine so that their lives are directed by God, and they have an internal directional system that teaches them how they navigate through everything, even these difficult things, and trying to handle the various kinds of people that you encounter. And then in chapter 4, verse 12, Paul turns toward encouraging Timothy to overcome various obstacles. Now this is really very important because we all have different obstacles. In every season of life you have different obstacles, And I would just encourage you to ask yourself, what are the obstacles that I face in my life? What are the barriers?

What are the impediments to godliness? What are the traps? You know, what are the pitfalls? What are the holes I can fall into? The ditches I can find myself rolling into.

What are they? Every person should ask that question in every stage of life. So Paul was writing to a young man and so in verse 12 in chapter 4 he says, let no one despise your youth. One of the liabilities of youth is that it can be a time of insecurity and you can feel despised. And he says, don't let anyone despise your youth, but be an example to believers.

And then he itemizes various ways that he should be an example. So he has this liability, it's called his youth, but what should he do? And He itemizes various things that young people should focus on so that they wouldn't be despised. First is right speech. Be an example to the believers in word.

In other words, the way that you talk, the things that you talk about. Secondly, right conduct. Thirdly, love. Fourth, faith. In other words, that you're a person that has a big God.

The faith that you have in God is God-sized faith. And that you read Scripture. And then finally, that you fan the flame of your gifts. Those instructions are very helpful. Those six things that are listed there are critical for young people.

Traffic in the right speech, make sure you're conducting yourself in a mature and godly way, love, have big faith, read Scripture, and fan the flame of your gifts. That means that young people should be exercising their gifts in the church. They shouldn't be passively waiting around for something to happen. They should be praying about how their gifts can be expressed in the church, and that's a question you should be asking. And then he says, till I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and do not neglect the gift that is in you.

And that's an admonition that we all should heed. Don't neglect the gift. And then he begins to speak about the treatment of church members and to develop an atmosphere of honor in the church in chapter 5. And so there are different kinds of people in the church in chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, and there are older men and younger men, there are older women, there are mothers, and there are all these different kinds of age groups. He's just encouraging him about how he should deal with all these different kinds of people in the church and how to relate with widows and he gives an enormous amount of instruction about how to deal with widows.

There's so much confusion in the church today about what a widow is. Well here in chapter 5 verse 3 through 16 you'll get clarity on how do you think about widows, the troubles they have, what about their family life, what about their support, how do you deal with widows and what is a widow. So Read that and you'll see. He says, honor widows who are really widows. Okay?

My guess is people have always been confused about what a widow is and he tries to instruct so that people understand what a widow is. The Bible says that we should minister to widows and orphans. And what are they? Well, widows are defined here. And then elders, he speaks of honoring elders in chapter 5 verses 17 to 21, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor in the word and doctrine for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain so he's talking about this Old Testament law about not muzzling oxen, he says, well that's why because you don't muzzle oxen, you also don't starve your preachers, especially those who labor in doctrine.

You're supposed to pay for preaching because as he says, the laborer is worthy of his wages. And then after that he talks about how to discipline elders. What happens when elders sin, misbehave, or accused of something, and he gives very clear guidelines for how you deal with an elder who is either accused of sin or actually has fallen into sin. And then he speaks about how it's easy to presumptuously endorse men in verse 22. And then he gives different instructions like, Timothy, don't just drink water only.

Use a little wine for your stomach. And then we get to chapter 6 in 1 Timothy, the final chapter here, and he speaks of honoring masters. He's talking about those who are in a subservient working position, people who have bosses, and he instructs that bosses should be honored, and if they're not honored, then the doctrine of God will be blasphemed. You know, Christians should be really careful about the kind of employees they are, that they honor their masters, because when they dishonor their masters, they're blaspheming the doctrine of honor, which I believe he's talking about the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. He's talking about honoring those who are in authority over you.

And then he speaks of signs of pride and ignorance by neglecting the words of Jesus Christ and then contentment. Verse 6, chapter 6. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, are you content? Well, godliness with contentment is a great and a powerful leverage point in your life.

Contentment is such a helpful thing in your soul. Discontentment will rot your bones, but being content with what you have is such a blessing. To take a deep breath and say, look what the Lord has given me. He's been wise. He's given me all I need, and recognizing my God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory, but that we would be content.

And then He speaks of this confession of true men of God, and their confession is really wrapped up and not just in what they say but in what they do that they pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love and patience that's in verse 11 and this is consistent with a right confession. And then he gives instructions to the rich in chapter 16 verses 17 through 19 and he says, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy." And then the final appeal is in verse 20. Oh Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust. In other words, guard the deposit. What's the deposit?

It's the Word of God. Guard the Word of God. Guard the deposit that was made in your life that came from the instruction of your mother and your grandmother and the instruction that he received. Guard the deposit. This is the great responsibility of pastors to guard the deposit.

Guard the Word of God. Uphold it, speak of it, and try to explain it. Then we move to 2 Timothy. There's an outline broken up into three basic sections. The first section is hold on to sound doctrine and don't give up, chapter one.

Chapter two, teach sound doctrine to faithful men, and chapter three, preach sound doctrine in the face of opposition. And that is found in chapters 3 and 4. Here in 2 Timothy chapter 1, Timothy's faith and his heritage is explained. This is some of the most beautiful and helpful language to direct single mothers and even grandmothers who have a son. We don't know much about Timothy's father.

It doesn't seem that he's around. It doesn't seem that he was around when Timothy was being raised. But who was around? His mother and his grandmother. And he says that he calls to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice so he was taught from a child the Word of God we learned that in the third chapter of 2 Timothy, and that he's encouraging Timothy to not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord which he was taught, and to be loyal to the faith and to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In chapter 2, he instructs him to teach sound doctrine to faithful men. He says in chapter 2, verse 2, and these things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." This is the discipleship mandate that we ought to be teaching sound doctrine to faithful men. We are taught by faithful men and then we teach faithful men. And then he says, but you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier and if anyone competes in athletics he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules the hard-working farmer must be the first to partake of the crops.

Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding." So he makes it clear that the Christian life is, it's warfare. It's the life of a soldier. It's also explained in the life of an athlete or a farmer. So he gives different illustrations of the Christian life, and they all communicate a very similar theme, And that is that it can be difficult. It can be difficult for a soldier, it can be difficult for an athlete, and it can be very difficult for the farmer.

But God is faithful. And so The Apostle Paul is just continuing to encourage Timothy to continue on with the work and recognize that it is a difficult work. And then he speaks of the fact that there will be approved and disapproved workers in verse 14 of this chapter. And then he speaks of perilous times in chapter 3, and he talks about the kinds of people that you'll experience. Now, again, he's talking about in the last days what kind of people are you going to encounter.

Well, you're going to encounter men who are lovers of themselves. Verse 2, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control. These are the kind of people you're gonna meet in the last days. Don't get too rattled when you meet people like this. Grow up, be mature, understand what kind of people you'll encounter.

Don't be discouraged when you meet them. He says that you'll meet people who are without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And he says, from such people, turn away. He says they creep into households, they hurt people, but just recognize this is going to happen, and here's what you don't want to become. You don't want to become a person who is unduly discouraged by sinful people that are in this world.

Water off a duck's back. Keep on moving, recognizing that God is the judge, but you will encounter these kinds of people. But Don't be discouraged and give up when you encounter people like this. You know, opposition from corrupt men is nothing new. Verse 8 in this chapter, Paul tells Timothy this.

He says, now as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith, but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs was also. In other words, opposition in the Church of God is not new. If you experience it, recognize it's been happening all the way back to the days of Moses. There will be opposers and there will be men of corrupt minds who resist the truth. And it would be very unwise to reject the Church of Jesus Christ because these kinds of things happen.

And then he speaks of the man of God as being a man of the Word there in verse 10 in chapter 3. And then this classic statement about Scripture, it's one of the most succinct and powerful and important passages that teaches you about the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. God has given His Word in order to perform this function in your life to reprove you, to correct you, to teach you what is good, to make you complete. He speaks of being thoroughly equipped for every good work.

He's talking about a healing process that happens when you fill your mind with the Word of God. He equips you. He makes you ready for service. And then in chapter 4, he exhorts Timothy to preach the Word of God in the face of opposition that He should in every season convince, rebuke, and exhort with all long suffering and teaching. And then Paul says in a very reflective way because he's beginning to think that he's about ready to end the letter and he says, you know, I'm being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand.

I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. Finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing." The Apostle Paul loved the appearing of Jesus Christ, and as a result, he poured out his life like a drink offering. But he recognized that the fight was coming to an end.

He's an old man. He's been stoned. He's been shipwrecked. His body's been racked. He's been slandered and his reputation destroyed in many ways, but he loves the appearing of Jesus Christ.

That's the tenderness of his heart. Then he speaks of the hardships of abandonment and betrayal in verse 9 up to verse 16. He speaks of different people that betrayed him and who have abandoned the Lord. He speaks of how no one stood with them in verse 16 but all forsook him. He speaks about Alexander the coppersmith who did him much harm.

Here's what you need to recognize. Some people might do you harm in this world But you have to recognize that God is in control. Paul never got bitter. In verse 16, after itemizing all these hard things that happened to him, he says this, may it not be charged against them. Paul was a free man.

He wasn't incarcerated by bitterness. He believed that God was in control and so he recognized that he was not the final judge. He was not the one who would bring the punishment to those who had opposed him. God would do it. God would take care of him.

May it not be charged against them. You see the compassion that Paul had toward his enemies? And Paul's compassion should cause us to ask this question. Am I compassionate toward my enemies? Do I wish they would be destroyed or do I wish that their sin would not be charged against them?

This is the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ working in a man who had been harmed greatly. And then he explains why because verse 17, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. It was the Lord that sustained him and he believed that the Lord would deliver him from every evil work. He says, he'll deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever.

And then finally he greets various people in Ephesus and then he ends with this farewell, the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, grace be with you all, amen. So there's 1 and 2 Timothy written to a young man in a pagan city who was experiencing trials and tribulations and rejections and false doctrine. He had many disappointments. He had many reversals and he was a young man with many liabilities. And what should he do?

He should remain on. It's almost always too soon to give up. And God in His kindness, He brings us into situations that are hard for us, but they are also very helpful to us because they drive us to Him. And if you know people who've gone through terrible trials who really love the Lord, here's what you find out. When they talk about their lives and they recall the hardest things that ever happened, They always say the same thing.

They say, I was never so close to the Lord as I was in that trial. You know, for example, I found out that I was gonna die of cancer, and I was never closer to the Lord than that time. You know, I almost died in an accident. I was never closer to the Lord. There's a family member of my own who was bleeding to death, and it looked like she was gonna die and she told me she never felt closer to the Lord as when she was being strapped onto that gurney to get in a helicopter to be life flighted out but her life was saved She was never closer to the Lord than that time.

And that's the truth about the fight of faith that we have is that God is always faithful to those who experience trials and disappointments. And so the admonition to Timothy is our admonition. Remain on at Ephesus. Preach the sound doctrine and wait with glad heart for his appearing. So, first and second Timothy.