In Greg Dowdall's sermon on 2 Timothy 2, he explores the themes of confirmation, affirmation, and exhortation as described in Paul's letter to Timothy. The sermon addresses the importance of spiritual endurance and grace in the face of trials, using personal anecdotes and historical context to illustrate these points. Dowdall emphasizes the need to hold fast to sound doctrine and warns against Gnosticism and idle babblings. He distinguishes between tradition, which is living faith passed down, and traditionalism, which is rote ritual without meaning. The sermon underscores the importance of preparing for trials and preserving the truth, encouraging believers to seek wisdom and live by conviction.

Let's open up with a word of prayer. We're going to be in 2 Timothy, kind of flying over the book of 2 Timothy, but landing in chapter 2, and to take home some points as to how this applies to us and how we should live our lives. So if you would let's open up in prayer and prime our hearts. Heavenly Father, What a blessing it is we can unite with brothers and sisters. Father, as we discussed in Sunday school class, two authors writing to two different audiences, speaking the same words from two different times, two different points.

Father, and yet that is just the tip of the iceberg of what scripture reveals. Father, they're just building off of a foundation that was laid before the beginning of time as your Word reveals. Father, may we be vessels used to build off of the grace that you have bestowed upon us. Father that we would not find strength in ourselves but we would find strength given to us, sustained, sustaining us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Father what means of grace it is that you've chosen to use us, that you've chosen to hold us fast, that you've chosen to keep us.

Regardless of our sinful ways, Lord, your will will come to fruition. We have no reason to fear, but Father, we have every reason to be reverent for you, for your word and for its truth this morning, for tomorrow, for this week. Father, that we may build off of the teachings of forefathers who've gone before us, who've instilled tradition. May we receive tradition as its truth that stands. You are good.

Open our hearts, remove the vessel preparing this word this morning father that it may be your word that goes forth. You are good. We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I had a message kind of halfway prepared on church history, starting with what I would refer to as the second generation Christians, and talking a little bit about what the persecution and type of persecution that second generation Christians would have gone through.

Now, these would be people that were after Peter and Paul and the apostles. This would be the next generation as the word has been handed down, the things that they ran into. But I got stuck in second Timothy and I didn't feel it would be justified to jump to the next generation. When everything we're given is right here in a book written to Timothy through the spiritual father Paul and I really want to call this to application with a story to open up. So there was my freshman year playing baseball.

We did conditioning in the wintertime. It was weight conditioning. And we did an exercise called leg press. And leg press is when you lay on your back with your feet in the air and there's a plate and on the outside there's a rack of weights and you press with your legs up in the air the weight to strengthen your legs. And our coach was always really good about getting more out of you than what you thought you could get out of yourself because he would stand there with his hand on the weight bar and your repetition might be 10 rounds, 10 reps.

And so you'd get to five and you'd think, I don't know if I got five left in me. And he'd say, all right, now five more. And so you'd rack out five. And you get to your last one, and he'd say, all right, now four more. And you'd be like, coach, I don't think I did the last five.

And he's grabbing a hold of it, pulling it. And you'd finish out those last four, and he'd say, okay, now three more. And you're like, coach, I can see the blood vein popping out of your forehead. I know this is not me. And so he's just pulling them out.

And this would go down to eventually you got to one and you're pretty sure on the last one, your legs didn't even leave, your knees didn't even leave your chest. You were that tired. You were that exhausted. And so there was a young man, he was a sophomore at a junior college where I was a freshman at the time. And you would think sophomores would have more wisdom than the freshmen, but sometimes not always the case.

And this young man, he had a very loud voice and he was a man that most everybody, you know, certain people just draw your attention. Well, this guy drew your attention and he had a loud voice and you didn't want to stand up right away because if you stood up right away the blood would rush out of your head and you would literally pass out. He stands up and he wobbles around and he goes, coach, my obliques, coach, my obliques. And we all kind of looked at each other a little bit. He said, we saw coach's eyes kind of turn.

He says, all right, I'm going to preserve this guy's name for unanimity. But he says, all right, your obliques? He says, yeah, my obliques. He says, all right, why don't you go over there and do 200 sit-ups and tell me how your glutes feel? And so he did 200 sit-ups and realized where his obliques really were.

But the point of that is to set the stage for we all have been in a point of our sanctification or lack thereof where we have said foolish things, where we have been humbled either personally by somebody who confronted us or later on by someone or simply by scripture, by reading scripture. I've got notes in an old Bible that I read through and every now and then I come to a note and I say, man, that was way off. It was way off. And I got to tell you that one of the most biggest joys about being in a church your whole life is the joy of grace extended to you for the errors of your ways of your youth and your childhood. One of the biggest joys of working with family is the constant extension of grace that is given to you and received.

And so I thank this church for having patience with me in my youth. I thank my family for having patience with me in the errors of my ways and the foolishness of my words. And I just praise God that as we discussed this morning that it is God who preserves us through those times. Amen. Well, the book of 2nd Timothy is Paul writing to Timothy.

He addresses him as a son in chapter 1 verse 2, Timothy my beloved son. And what we see here is we see Paul on his last days, on his last leg, he's in prison. He is most certainly knows that death is upon him, knows that it's near, maybe doesn't know quite when. And he writes a letter of urgency. Now this is a little bit different than Peter.

Peter's letter is discussed in Sunday school was a letter of, to be read in front of maybe a church or a church setting or be passed around. And I've got to turn my stopwatch on here, but this is more of a personal letter. It's directly to Timothy. It's directly to exhort him. It's directly to command him, but all scripture is useful for teaching and correction.

And now we can use this for ourselves. But I ask you this question, Paul is is giving a a letter to Timothy, basically of his last words. What would your last words be if you knew that death was near you? As we intro with the story of the young man, would your words be foolish or would they be full of wisdom? Would they be full of urgency for the kingdom?

Or would they be worried about the crock pot getting too hot? I'm being facetious. But the point still stays. If you had a chance, would they reveal a lifetime of wisdom? Hopefully your words would reveal a steadfast spirit, immovable and convicted.

Hopefully you would have lived a life of spiritual conviction, fueled by grace of our Lord Jesus with humility, and your words would not match the words of your youth. Paul's second letter to Timothy is a letter of last words, and his future is imminent, that execution is near. Paul's letter is that of a father giving his last words to his son. Now reverse the role, if you were the son, how would you receive those last words? Would they be with humility?

Would you embrace them? Or would you throw them to the wayside because you know better? Paul's last words all throughout the book of 2 Timothy, the letter to Timothy, there's three main points that I'll pull out that we're going to build off of. It's to confirm the work of Christ, to affirm salvation and hope when trials and tribulations come, just like we spoke about over there, and it's to exhort, to preserve the faith. And hopefully this is one that we're going to land on as we progress through the message this morning.

It reflects a life of transformation from the world and defends against confirmation to the world. Second Timothy chapter 1 as we kind of get, lay the footing in place, chapter one, verses eight through 12. Is Paul reaffirming the essentials, the unity upon which they they find fellowship with one another? And it's the gospel, it says, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me that his prisoner but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us according to a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, who's with me. What's that say?

Before time began. But has now been revealed by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel to which I was appointed in preacher and apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day." Paul's section here is just a reiteration of the essentials. It builds upon a foundation already laid by both his grandmother and mother of Paul himself, as we see in verses three through seven.

And that's a reminder and encouragement to Timothy of his upbringing, his genuine faith and salvation, and of his calling to teach. Moving on to verse 13, it says this, and this is probably maybe one of the big foundations upon what we're going to teach this morning. It's hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Hold fast the pattern. The word that stuck out to me was the word pattern and when I looked up for some reason I went to look up the Greek word and I'm going to say it and everybody can laugh, it's hu-pa-tu-pa-sis.

I'm not making fun, that's literally what it is. Hu-pa-tu-pa-sis, hu-pa-tu-pa-sis, I'll say it as many times as you want. Hu-pa-tu-pa-sis means literally it's a type, It means to come after something. It's sometimes a sketch, a sketch used for imitation. So it's something to be repeated.

Something made to be given down, to be passed along, to be repeated, translation, it's a pattern or a form. Hold fast the pattern of sound doctrine. It's not a pattern which we made up. It's not a pattern which we devised. It's a pattern that has been given to us to follow.

There is a pattern. There is a purpose for the things of which we've been taught through scripture. It emphasizes the importance of holding true to the teachers and the teachings of the spiritual forefathers. Now as it applies to sanctification, There may be a point in everybody's life, there is a point where the answer, I don't know, is maybe the best answer you can give. For example, if there's somebody that asks you why you do something, it is much better to say, I don't know, than to make up an answer.

Because making up an answer is the beginning of Gnosticism. We've heard that word beat to death behind this pulpit of Gnosticism. And I guarantee you, because I'm in the same way, What is Gnosticism again? Gnosticism is confusing because it takes so many forms and it's been it's been prevalent since day one of Christianity. Gnosticism is is just man interjecting his thoughts into theology.

It's man taking this word and instead of, as Ethan displays for us, instead of having it up here over us, our word becomes equal with Scripture. And so when we read Scripture we say, I don't know what that means, rather than saying the answer's got to be in here somewhere, or I'm just gonna say I don't know because God hasn't spoken to me yet through Scripture to say this, we say, well I think, or I feel like, that's the beginning of Gnosticism. I don't know if anybody else, and we've all said it, we've all done it, but if anybody says I feel like, I just immediately, my ears like turn into wrestlers ears, or they get all cottage cheesy looking, and they roll up and like, I just wish they'd plugged. I don't want to hear the rest. But we've all done it.

We're all subject to it. We're all humble, and maybe have been humiliated by the foolish things we've said. So hold fast the pattern of sound doctrine. Hold fast the pattern of sound doctrine. Don't be afraid to say I don't know.

But don't say I don't know for long. There are answers. We need to go find it. Second Timothy 1 15 kind of finally gives The final message of the urgency of why Paul is writing this He says this this you know that all those in Asia have turned away from me among whom are figalus and Hermogenes Who in Asia has turned away from Paul? All in Asia have turned away from me.

Paul is alone. Paul has found himself with an urgency and a burden to preserve this with young Timothy. And this urgency is utmost important. Paul's motivation for writing is a response to love brethren who have abandoned him. And it sets the context for the rest of his letter as an exhortation to three things, confirm the work of Christ, Affirm salvation and hope when trials and tribulations come, we talked about that.

And exhort to preserve the truth. These are the work of the church. Why do we come to church? To confirm the work of Christ with one another through fellowship, to affirm salvation and hope with one another when trials or tribulations come. This is to share burdens with one another and to exhort, to preserve the truth.

This is the value of older generations being in the same Sunday school class as younger generations. It's to preserve the truth. It's not to separate it, it's to join it together so it flows continuously, so it's handed down. So a young person is not left to the thoughts of his youth. Now, we turn short final and we're coming in for landing on 2 Timothy chapter two.

Says this. Forgot what I was gonna read. We're gonna read one through six and then jump ahead a little bit. You therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Here's the confirmation, here's the command, it's to be what?

Strong in what? The grace that is in Christ Jesus. This kind of has two meanings and two applications for Timothy. As a follower of what is known as the Way, you got to admit if you called yourself the Way, you would probably feel like you rubbed a few people wrong, right? So as a follower of the way, being strong in the grace of Jesus Christ was a strong commandment, similar to that of paddling upstream.

Be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ. Be prepared to battle upstream. There is no other religion alike that ascribes to a doctrine of grace, never has been, never was at the time, and it doesn't appear that there ever will be. Be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ethan literally, I think he was reading my papers when we were talking about how Christians were viewed in Sunday school class. I'm just gonna read it because these were my words first, Ethan.

But it said, it's not uncommon that Christians were hated because they ate and drank Jesus's blood, therefore they were known as cannibalists, falsely accused of course. They were mostly of lower class, believed that all were equally depraved and met quietly in homes at night, So therefore as from the Roman government's standpoint, they were insurrectionists. They believed in only one God. So in a polytheistic society, they were what? Atheists?

They greeted one for one another with a holy what? Kiss. So they were polygamous and incestuous. I have to speak louder than you, Ethan, because you… They were a threat to commerce because they denounced big business like prostitution and idol worship. Many felt that Christians should be exterminated for provoking the wrath of the gods.

So a lot of times when there was a natural disaster, there was a flood or a drought, it wasn't our fault, it was the Christians fault, because our gods are mad at the Christians. So let's get rid of them. This is the stream that they're paddling against when Paul says, be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong. Second application is to Timothy, the teacher kind of reverts back to the whole, sometimes it's okay to say I don't know, to doctrinal questions for a while.

It's a reminder to have faith in the works and grace of Jesus Christ in a society that had faith and works in the merit of self. As a teacher of the way, being strong in the grace of Jesus was a strong commandment to resist the encroachment and temptation of Gnosticism. In other words, it's man's flesh that would be tempted to come up with an answer to something that somebody might have of something. I don't know sometimes is the strongest answer you can give because I don't know keeps you from the temptation of Gnosticism. It's not an excuse.

It shouldn't be an answer forever, But it may be an answer for a time. It is okay to say, I don't know. Be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ. That's the confirmation. That's the unity upon which Paul and Timothy are united, the grace and the work of Christ.

And the second part of that is commit to faithful men, teach, continue legacy, pass these things on, seek out men who will preserve these things and take them forth. Verses three through six, we jump to affirm. We've done the confirm. We jump to affirm salvation and hope when afflictions and tribulations come. This is what we're talking about now.

Paul says, you therefore must endure hardships 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 also if anyone competes in athletics he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

We're going to take a minute. We've got to address something. This warning of afflictions might cause some of us to say, if we are in Christ, and we are holding fast to the doctrines of grace, are we afflicted right now? If you studied church history, any church history, I'm not saying you have to be a scholar, but if you read about anybody in church history, your answer would be no. We have not experienced affliction here.

We have not experienced tribulations. We might have a few trials. I don't mean to belittle anything, any issue that somebody may have come up against with the neighbor or just anything that that you've struggled with or wrestled with, that we've never had to decide whether we were going to live or die tomorrow. We've never had to decide whether we were going to take this book and give it to a governmental authority and let them burn it. We've never had to make that decision.

If these warnings from Paul to Timothy are warnings that this is a result, this is an Affirmation of what happens when you stick to the doctrine of grace. We have to ask ourselves why I Hasn't God affirmed us through tribulations Does that make sense? If tribulations are an affirmation that we're following grace, Why hasn't he chosen to affirm us? The best answer I can come up with is, I don't know. But we know the attributes of God.

We know that he is patient. We know that he is kind. We know that he is good and faithful and he is just. And the best thing we can do at a time like now where maybe we haven't been affirmed. I'm not saying we need to go seeking tribulation or trials to be affirmed in that, but right now maybe we're just called to be blessed and affirmed in the attributes of God to be living in that time.

Amen. Paul gives three examples of professionals during a time of hardship or trials to encourage Timothy. Give the example of a soldier, Some of the attributes of a soldier are commitment, loyalty, and devotion to one supreme authority, as Paul says. So we should be seeking in this time to firm up our commitment, our loyalty, and our devotion to one supreme authority. He gives the example of an athlete.

Again, the attributes that I came up with were commitment, loyalty, devotion, and one other one was focus. An athlete is focused. He focuses on the end prize. He doesn't worry about how hard he's sucking wind on the fourth lap. He's focused on the end prize.

And the Last is the farmer, and I do ask that you remove the vessel giving this, but it's commitment, devotion, focus, and faithfulness. The farmer's intention is to plant his best crop every year, expecting that seed to yield its very best every year, knowing that that seed has its full potential when it's in the bag. But a farmer cannot raise a yield and cannot live off a single seed. He must plant the seed. He must cultivate the soil so that it can be multiplied.

We must plant the seed. We must cultivate the soil so that it will be multiplied. A farmer expects this to happen. And along the way, there's drought, there's flood, there's insect pressure, there's lack of fertility in the soil. There are circumstances that the farmer cannot control.

And so, faithfulness is the added attribute to the farmer. Regardless of the outcome, He's faithful to put forth his best and laziness reaps no benefit to a farmer. These three characters, if you will, and their attributes, We're blessed by God that God would give us warnings of what would happen when we do certain things. Amen? Let me give you an example of Deuteronomy 6 verse 12.

He gives the example, he says, And when you go into this land that I've prepared for you, I'm paraphrasing, when you go into the cities that I've built, when you go into the homes that I've established, beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. You shall, continue on, you shall fear the Lord, you shall serve him, you shall not go after other gods, you shall not tempt the Lord, you shall diligently keep the commandments, his testimonies, his statutes, and do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord." God is a merciful God, a gracious God to give us the expectations of self when we go through times like maybe now when tribulation is not refining us by fire. When you go into the land, this is what to expect. You will walk away. You will be tempted to serve other gods.

You'll be tempted to not diligently keep the commandments, his statutes, the testimonies. You'll be tempted to not serve him but serve self. You'll be tempted to not do what's not right in the sight of the Lord. And then in verse 20 through 24 is the emphasis on what we ought to preserve. He says, when your son, so expect this, you who go through times of blessing, expect this when your son asks you in time to come, What is the meaning of the testimonies, statutes, judgments which the Lord God has commanded you?

You say we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household. Then he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in to give us the land which we swore to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is this day. Is this our answer when someone asks us why we do something? Because we fear the Lord our God?

God gives us reference to how he would like to be remembered. And that's too soft. God gives us reference as to how he will be remembered. As a God who delivers, not a God who responds. Translation, Deuteronomy 6, because we were not Israelites and we were not in Egypt.

We were slaves to sin. This would be our answer to the one who says why do we live according to these statutes. We say we were slaves to sin, and the Lord brought us out with his mighty right hand. We were blind, now we see, we were deaf, now we hear, we were lame, Now we walk, we were dumb, and now we speak. Back to you in your last words.

Would your last words reveal that you have seen his glorious grace, that you heard his word and submitted to it, that you walked a life of faithfulness and in turn speak wisdom to the next generation. The final trifecta, if you will, of what Paul is accomplishing in his letter to Timothy. We've talked about the confirmation of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the affirmation that trials will come, and how do we handle trials when they come? And even in times of today, when it appears that trials and tribulations are far off, we prepare because they will come. The third one is to exhort to preserve the truth.

Verses 14 and 15 is the calling here. Remind them of these things. Charge them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of hearers. Be diligent to present yourself, a proof to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and here it is, rightly dividing the word of truth. Rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase in more ungodliness. How do we pass along the faith? How do we do this? Well as you already learned in Sunday school, you must have doctrine. I used to think doctrine was a word for people that had initials before their name and after their name.

The doctrine is for everyone. You must have doctrine. You must have answers for the questions of why do you do what you do. We must have fundamentals to uphold our doctrine. There's a phrase that we used to use in baseball that when you're pitching, you reach a point of, it's called pitching with conviction.

And pitching of conviction is a, it's a degree of confidence that you achieve because your fundamentals are so strong and you know them so well that you know when that ball leaves your hand, that it will accomplish exactly everything that you have expected it to do. That's pitching with conviction. You know if you messed up along the way, you know if your shoulder came out too quickly or if your stride was too short, or if your release point was too high, you know that that ball may not do exactly everything that you expect it to do. We can know our fundamentals as Christians in a similar way, that we can go forth with confidence in knowing that the Word will go forth and it will accomplish everything that we expect it to accomplish. The problem is when our fundamentals are messed up, our expectations change.

It's not us forming our own expectations, it's letting our fundamentals speak to our conscience so that our conscience can know what to expect, so that it can be trained. We had a coach that used to say to the whole group, but of course as freshmen you're pretty quick to display your ignorance, you say, practice makes perfect, right? Everybody go, yeah. And you go, no. As all the sophomores look at you like you're a fool, he says, practice makes permanent.

Perfect practice makes perfect. And that stuck with me. Confidence stems from intense dedication to fundamentals. If we don't know what those fundamentals are, if we don't pass those along to the next generation, the next generation, they're just, they're wild pitchers. Terrible.

They're loose cannons. They're full of Gnosticism, full of filling out their own ways. Paul's urgency is for Timothy in a world, in a society that is persecuting Christians to hold fast the doctrines of grace, to hold fast to the patterns which have been given to you. I just challenged you this morning, is there a pattern that's been given to you? And if not, maybe you're blessed.

You can start with your pattern fresh from Scripture. And if you have a pattern, if you are living in conviction, consider your convictions. Are they scriptural? Are they based in Scripture? Do they need to be tweaked?

What are our biblical fundamentals? Reading your Bible, praying in the quiet, fellowship of believers, singing and passing along wisdom to the next generation. Wisdom to the next generation. When our doctrine becomes defined, we begin to live by conviction. Doctrine leads to principles, convictions upon which we live.

Living with conviction means living with the expectation that the word will do what it was intended to do. There's always a question, what do we do in times where maybe our convictions don't line up with one another, and Two are pretty passionate one way or the other. And my answer is, I don't always know, but there was a saying by a 17th century German theologian that nobody's ever heard of. If you have, shame on me, but Rupertus Meldinius, who said this, and this was specifically stemmed from the Apostles' Creed, and I was gonna do a whole thing on the Apostles Creed too, specifically the point where it says he descended into hell. How do we come up with that?

And there's arguments to both sides, both pretty legitimate. I chose to stay away from that because I couldn't get out of 2nd Timothy when I started reading about Paul's urgency to his son in Christ, Timothy. But Rupertus Mildenius says in charge of addressing Convictions where we don't always agree, he said, is in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity. And I have a packet here somewhere that is from Ligonier Ministries who helped me unpack this a little bit. I just want to read it to you because it was said pretty well.

It says, Rupertus Meldania strikes the right balance. It calls for the unity on the essential things, the core of truth in our union with Christ. In non-essentials, that's not right, I'm too far ahead, sorry. The church is a diverse church. This diversity among Christians is due to our lack of conformity to Christ.

That's the root of it. If there are disagreements, it's because it's our lack of conformity to Christ. He has chosen, again this is God who delivers and doesn't respond, He has chosen to sanctify us gradually in this world. As the progress we make in sanctification varies both in doctrine and in patience, there will always be a need in this world for those who are united in Christ to live in love with one another while dealing with differences. It's just the honest truth.

Sometimes these differences result in the formation of different churches and denominations in order to maintain a good conscience towards God. There's that word conscience. We must live with our conscience. But such divisions need not to be a defeat of unity among us, so long as we do not permit them destroy our love and welcome for one another in Christ. Now the saying of Rupertus Meldinius strikes the right balance.

It calls for unity on the essential things, the core truth in our union with Christ and non-essentials, not that they're unimportant, but those things that are lacking, that if lacking, do not prevent our union with Christ. And non-essentials it calls for liberty, so that all might follow their conscience under word and spirit." That's a key word there. You're not free to just follow your conscience loosely. But in all things, however, there must be love, which is charity, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 314.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus so that with one heart and one mouth You may glorify God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, accept one another, then just as Christ has accepted you, in order to bring praise towards God. Romans 15, 5 through 7. If you have a conviction and you have a desire to share that conviction, Paul urges Timothy in chapter 4 verse 2 of the second letter here, It says, be ready in season and out of season. Be ready to share it. Be ready to answer.

Be ready to share the gospel. And if you have a conviction that is different than a brother, 1 Corinthians 13, don't be a banging symbol. If you have not love, you're just a banging symbol. In all things, charity. In essentials, unity.

In non-essentials, liberty. And in all things, charity. As we consider, I don't know how many hours we spend as elders questioning things like why do we do this or why do we do that? I mean it's ours. We spend a lot of time, a lot of times answers I don't know and then we try and discern what the motive of the prior generation was or forefathers hundreds of years ago was for setting up structures and this, that and the other.

And You don't need to be worried. We're not rewriting the wheel. But it's simple to ask the question why, just for an understanding. That came up with two definitions of things that are given to us. Now one is tradition.

Tradition is the living faith of the dead. It's routines handed down to you as a result of a faith that was alive in a previous generation. It's the living faith of the dead. Those routines are passed along, they're given to you, and they're received by you, because it's no longer dead, but it remains alive. It's the living faith of the dead.

It's faith passed along from generation to generation. It remains alive. Now, we don't own authority in this. We know, as we talked earlier, the Holy Spirit preserves that. The tradition is the living faith of the dead.

It's a legacy of those who went before us. It's age old wisdom and practice handed down from a foregone generation and received with humility and understanding as a result of a cultivated fear of the Lord. The inverse of that, what is known as traditionalism, and it's the dead faith of the living. It's routines, it's going through their motions. It's dead faith of the living.

It's going through and reciting the Apostles' Creed, but you don't know what it means. It's giving to the offering, but you don't know why you're given. It's a physical body in motion with a mind that is less than lukewarm. Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.

As a church, we ought to take battle against traditionalism and ask the question, why do we do what we do? We ought to be rich in instilling tradition, passing along the reasons for why we do what we do. In benediction, I've got this, been going through the book Pillars of Grace by Steven Lawson, which is really kind of the catalyst for a lot of this. Page 94 says this, as you survey the landscape of this day, where do you see the truth of God's word under similar attack? Where do you note the walls of orthodoxy crumbling around you?

Where do you witness the truth of sovereign grace being undermined? Any observer of the world today must agree that these assaults are steadily occurring, even on the evangelical scene. In many quarters, the person and the work of Christ remain under constant attack. Numerous cults deny the deity of Christ. False religions undermine the substitutionary death.

Erroneous teachings distort the core of the gospel message. This is traditionalism, all of it, it's Gnosticism. Such teachings are increasingly prevalent in the world and continue to trouble the church. Never has there been a greater need for sound doctrine. If you are possessed by a holy zeal for God's honor, you will be stirred to guard the truth of scripture.

If you're standing strong for the gospel, you will be committed to advancing transcendent theology. Such fiery passion is inflamed by a firm commitment to the doctrines of grace. Will you build your life on the truths of sovereign grace of God? Will you position yourself on this high theological ground in order to defend these biblical truths and fortify the church from heretical attacks? May God strengthen and defend you the truth of his supreme authority over all human history.

In a study that I've been going through, led me to Galatians 1, 8 through 10, that even if we, or an angel from heaven, Preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you. Let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, Let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men?

For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, The words of a father to a son, revealing a life of transformation, passing down transcendent passing down transcendent theology, urging and exhorting the son to preserve the faith, to preserve sound doctrine. As an example, father, that I asked as a church we would cling to. Father, I admit, Chief of Sinners, and foolishness, Father, that Gnosticism is always so close, It's as close to us as our nearest thought to an answer that we don't have an answer to, to a question that we don't have an answer to.

Father, may we seek wisdom. May we seek a God-centered tradition. May we never fail to ask the question why. May we unite in essentials. May we be quick to give grace and liberty in non-essentials, and in all things may we give love so that we may be a church that reflects you.

Father, I thank you for the gift of direction that you've given this church through Pastor Doug and faithful teaching. Father, I asked this morning that he would be blessed as he spends time with his son. There would be a father-son relationship to share in these things, to pass on faithful wisdom. Father, I ask that our souls would be prepared as we unite in fellowship over communion, that we would unite in the goodness of the work of Christ, that we would remain strong in the grace and the work of Christ. And we may rejoice in fellowship of what you have preserved in the midst of idle babblings.

Father, I thank you for strong men who've gone before us to lay groundwork upon which we may pick up. I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who again preserves all things. Father, you are good. We come together to unite in communion this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.