Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to 40 Days Through the New Testament. This podcast is led by Pastor Rusty Small at Liberty Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia. Listen as he guides you through all 27 books of the New Testament in preparation for Easter. Get your Bible ready. Here's today's message. Well, we move to 2 Timothy today, and 2 Timothy, I would propose, is quite more personal. than 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy seems that Timothy is hearing Paul's instruction and is going to have to pass a lot of this on directly to the Ephesian church and say, hey, look, you got to do this regarding your pastors and this regarding your deacons and this regarding your widow ministry and this regarding the false teachers. And Timothy is going to have to come in and do a lot of work regarding the church there in Ephesus. But 2 Timothy, Not that there isn't instruction to the church. In some ways, 2 Timothy is a lot more to Timothy than it is something Timothy is told that he has to pass along. I would say as a pastor myself that if I want encouragement and exhortation about a life of ministry, 2 Timothy is a great book to read. Maybe you're called into ministry or you're struggling in ministry and you're thinking, I need a book to encourage me, to give me instruction, to point out what I need to do. And Second Timothy is a great book for that because you really feel here Paul playing a fatherly role to Timothy. Now I haven't spent a lot of time on historical issues because I'm trying to give you a overview of key concepts and the letters of Paul just here's a fun fact are organized Romans to Philemon that's how they're organized are probably the reason that they're put in the order that they're put is from longest to shortest so they're not put on like a historical timeline they're just organized by the longest to the shortest that's the best insight we have so then these letters are being written at different times and you say, Rusty, why are you telling me this? I'm telling you this because 2 Timothy is very likely the last letter Paul ever writes. He dies after this. This is his last will and testament. It's his final words. And we got to note that because in 2 Timothy 4, he says in chapter 4 verse 6, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering for the time of my departure is close." 2 Timothy 4 is the last chapter as far as I can tell it that Paul ever wrote. Let's notice a little bit about this letter that is helpful for you to understand. Notice the, I think the encouraging testimony that Paul is going to give to Timothy. There is a clear theme here. Paul is passing it on. You know, it's great to be good in your own day, but it's really good that once you're gone, that people that you've trained are good in their day. And so this theme of mentorship, this theme of passing it on is very much at the heart of the pastoral epistles. Paul likely is, it doesn't say this in Acts, okay, it doesn't say this, but we kind of put the pieces together. and he is going to call Timothy, like 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 2, to Timothy my dearly loved son. So very likely Paul is the person who shared the gospel to Timothy and Timothy is converted. Luke is quick to note in Acts that Timothy had a Jewish mother, but then it says this, Timothy's father, he was a Greek, which is almost a polite way of saying, Timothy's dad likely wasn't a Christian. We don't know that for sure, but we probably do know that and with a reasonable degree of confidence. And notice here that Paul says that he's confident of Timothy's faith, that he's gonna make it. He's gonna make it because he says in verse five, I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now. I am convinced is in you also. Paul says to Timothy, you're going to be fine because I've seen two ladies stick with it, your mother and grandmother. Paul is going to tell Timothy, don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed of me who is suffering because you can share in my suffering and share in the suffering of Christ because in suffering here's the suffering and weakness with power motif that has been in other places. And Paul says suffer well and he says guard the good deposit that's been entrusted to you. Stick with sound teaching. Don't deviate. And then he points out that well there are plenty who have deviated. Paul names false teachers like Vigelis and Hermogenes who've turned away from the faith. He says, no, no, stick with it. And then he gets to chapter two and says, endure hardship. He gives several analogies that should guide our life as ministers. He says, share in suffering as a good soldier, for no one serving as soldier gets entangled with the concerns of civilian life, yet he seeks to please the commanding officer. And then he gives the analogy of an athlete. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. And then another analogy, the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to get a share of the crops. He's giving him guiding analogies. He says, notice, that a soldier has single-mindedness. He's not in civilian affairs. He says an athlete, he plays by the rules. And the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to ⁓ share of the crops because he works hard. And so again, we get these visions of faithful ministry. He also, again, remember we had the false teachers who want to kind of get off into speculations. He says, don't do that. Don't get into godless chatter, but be faithful. We ought to notice a few few key verses. Second Timothy, Chapter two, verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the Word of God and then notice avoiding irreverent and empty speech. He points out, you ought to know how to cut it straight. Listen, just because someone teaches the Bible doesn't mean they cut it straight. And one of the key ways that you know that a teacher of the Bible is cutting it straight is that they're teaching you the Bible. like what we're trying to do here on these 40 days through the New Testament podcast. You shouldn't think to yourself, ⁓ Rusty's giving me so many insights. There's no way I could see that from the Bible. Listen, if you can't see it from the Bible, my whole purpose of this podcast is to point to the Bible and say, these are some of the main ideas. Now, read it well. Another text that is important is Paul will say, look, in the last days, which... We've been in for a long time. Paul says it's not gonna get easier, it's gonna get harder. People are going to be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient. But he says, guess what? He says the word of God still stands. Another great verse, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. so that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work. Listen carefully, if anybody tells you the Bible is just a human book and nowhere in the Bible does it claim to be a book from God. Not true. Actually these terms, all scripture is given an inspiration of God or inspired by God. The word there is God's breath. It is not someone else. It's not the evangelical who says the Bible is from God. It's the Bible that says the Bible is from God. All scripture is given an inspiration of God. And then we get to see what Paul says. He says, look, preach the word, man, Timothy. Stay with it. Preach it when people want to hear it. Preach it when they don't want to hear it. Preach it straight. Stick with it. And then Paul says, you preach it because my time's up. I also want to point out that when Paul dies, I've been at a lot of the bedside of people who've died, and some people die and they go, you know, I wish I, I hope I had done what I need to do. I hope I have done the best I can. Paul dies with such confidence. When Paul is ready to die, he's about to be poured out like a drink offering. He says, I fought the, fought the good fight. I finished the race. have kept the faith. You know, when I get to the place where I'm gonna die, I hope I can set up in my hospital bed, hopefully at a very old age, and say exactly what Paul says, I fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I've kept the faith. That's a real vision. I want you to notice, Paul also dies, or is getting ready to die, and you know, if you make it through ministry, guess the problem that a lot of people have. is a lot of people don't make it with you. And Paul has been through some hurts. He says in verse 9, make every effort to come to me soon because Demas has deserted me since he loved the present world and has gone to Thessalonica. Cretians has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, only Luke is with me. I want you to notice one thing here. I didn't tell you about this in the book of Acts, but you read it. Paul and John Mark, Some people that you don't think are gonna make it, make it. And some people you think gonna make it, don't make it. Life's strange. John Mark, who was a big mess on the first missionary journey with Paul, to the point that Paul had a sharp disagreement with Barnabas and said, I'm gonna take him again. You know, notice here as Paul's getting a little older and hopefully a little wiser, he says, bring Mark with you for he is useful to me in the ministry. I want you to read, there's this robust community around Paul. Paul has people who've left him. He has people he'd like to see, but they're out on the mission. And Paul dies with a whole host of people that he's trained going out to serve. He dies with his mission accomplished, and he tells Timothy, the word until your mission is finished. Thank you for listening to this podcast, a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church. We pray that this is an encouragement to study God's Word and that you will join us for the next episode.