Preach the Words | 2 Timothy 4:1-5 | Mikey Brannon

Good morning church family. If you have your Bible I would ask you to go aheadand make your way to the book of 2 Timothy. Today we will be looking at 2Timothy 4: 1-5. My name is Mikey, I am a member here at GCF and have been fora few years now. My wife Brooke, and our 5 children love this church, and Ialways count it as an honor when I have the opportunity to preach.Pastor Ken did a great job last week as we worked our way through the closing ofchapter 3. And one passage that we looked at in particular was chapter 3 vs. 16-17.There was a family that joined about 3 weeks ago, and as they stood up on thestage and were sharing their faith and what they believe, brother said, we believein the sufficiency of scripture. I was in the back, I said amen! And that is reallywhat this passage gets to. All Scripture, not some scripture is from God.[2Ti 3:16-17 ESV] 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable forteaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 thatthe man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.We rightly believe that when we armed with the word of God we haveEVERYTHING we need for God to accomplish everything he wills to do in ourlives. We really don’t need anything else.The word of God is the center piece of Church. And is delivered by the man ofGod, the preacher. There is no greater calling, there is no more importantassignment, there is no greater need.2One of my heros of the faith is Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones said it this way in his book“Preachers and Preaching”, “The primary task of the church and of the Christianminister is the preaching of the word of God”.As Paul is writing this, We know he is nearing the end of his time here on earth.In fact this is likely the last writing that we have. And as I studied this passage thisweek, I gave some thought to how I might handle my final hours on earth.And I pictured myself maybe in a room, surrounded by those that I love. Perhaps aspouse, parents, or children, or even close friend perhaps would have gatheredaround. Have you ever wondered how you might feel in those moments. Whenyou don’t have much time left, and there is so much that you wanted to say to yourchildren, but time will just not allow. And you realize in those moments thedifficult times that perhaps your loved ones will have to go on to face. And yourealize you will not be there to help. You will not be able share guidance or bearburdens because your time has come to an end. What would you say in those lastmoments? I think if you get this picture in your mind, then you are close to feelingexactly like Paul feels as he pens the last words to Timothy. And so what will hesay, what is his closing plea to make sure that he leaves young Timothy headed inthe right direction.Paul knows all too well the dangers that are facing the church. He himself hasbeen imprisoned and stoned. He has seen the false teachers and he knows whatthey aim to do. He has seen false converts defect from the church. And with all ofthis on his mind, his eyes fix on Timothy, what possible advice can he give?[2Ti 4:1-5 ESV] 1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, whois to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, andexhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming whenpeople will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they willaccumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turnaway from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, alwaysbe sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill yourministry.3First, I want to talk about the structure of the passage, because that helps me digestand organize the thoughts in my mind. In verse 1, Paul lays out an overarchingcharge that sets the tone of the passage. Then in verse two we have the mainimperative statement of the entire passage. What is Timothy supposed to do? He isto “preach the word”. Highlight and double underline in. That is the title of themessage, and that is Pauls main point. Preach the word.And the rest of the passage simply explains “how” Timothy is to preach the word.So there are 8 or so imperatives that come after that explain how the Pastor is topreach. And we are going to go thru these this morning. Let’s look at verse 1.[2Ti 4:1-5 ESV] 1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who isto judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:We see the first verb is “charge”. It’s an important word and one we don’t usevery often. Can you imagine if you walked around telling people they are chargedto do something for you. They would think that you are crazy. The language usedhere is a military term. In today’s term an officer might say “this is an order!”.This assignment is not optional. There is no negotiation. Timothy must be all earsbecause what Paul is about to say is important.He goes on to say “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.” It is as if he stepsthe importance up yet another notch. Paul borrows language in this phrase from aRoman court room. In that day if you were charged with a crime you would begiven instruction of your court date, of the crime that was committed, and thissummons would say something like in the presence of the honorable judge so andso. It is as if we are being reminded of this task that Paul is about to lay out is aformal task. It is not optional. And none other than the Holy trinity itself will standand take account.Verse 1 says he is the judge of “the living and the dead”. The idea here goes backto God as the judge of all mankind.[2Co 5:10 ESV] 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, sothat each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whethergood or evil.4Paul sets the tone for this charge as one of grave importance. This task ofpreaching for both Timothy and all men who would be called to follow after is notto be taken lightly. In fact, this judge mentioned here in verse 1 will judge thesepreachers with even greater scrutiny. This concept of preachers being judged in aspecial way is not just here take a look at James 3:1.[Jas 3:1 ESV] 1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for youknow that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.One of my favorite preachers in church history is none other than Dr. MartynLloyd Jones. He was an outstanding physician in London, and even as a youngman was promoted to chief clinical assistant to the King. Sounds like prettyimportant work right?When I came here, people said to me: ‘Why give up good work – a goodprofession – after all, the medical profession, why give that up? If you had been abookie, for instance, and wanted to give that up to preach the gospel, we shouldunderstand and agree with you and say that you were doing a grand thing. Butmedicine – a good profession, healing the sick and relieving pain!’ One man evensaid this, ‘If you were a lawyer and gave it up, I’d give you a pat on the back, butto give up medicine!MLJ said about this ‘if you knew more about the work of a doctor, you wouldunderstand. We but spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to theirsin!’ I saw men on their sick beds, I spoke to them of their immortal souls, theypromised grand things. Then they got better and back they went to their old sin! Isaw I was helping these men to sin and I decided that I would do no more of it. Iwant to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is allright to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right forsixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of hell. Ah, yes! we havesometimes to give up those which are good for that which is the best of all – thejoy of salvation and newness of life.5MLJ had no problem leaving behind a physician for an earthly king, because heknew that call he received to be a preacher for the king of kings was far moreimportant work.So that is verse 1, it sets the stage, it provides the mood, the lighting of everythingwe are about to discuss. Verse 2.Preach the word. Underline this. We said this phrase is the main imperative of thetext. Not just for Timothy but all preachers will be judged based on how true theywere to the command. Preach the word.The Greek verb for preach here is Keruso. And it means to herald. Back in thosedays when there was an order from the King, perhaps a meeting that needed totake place in a particular village, they didn’t have a website or a newspaper toshare information. There would be assigned heralds. Who would move out into thebusy parts of towns, into the markets and they would begin to shout, attentionattention, and they would pass along the information. It was a public proclamation,given to all could hear, That is the idea about what it is to preach.But Paul does not permit the preacher to herald just anything, he says preach theword. You may think that should be obvious, but let me tell you it is not. Theremay be a temptation by a pastor, perhaps even by pressure of his congregation todo so something other than preach the word. Paul speaks of the entire council ofscripture. Both the OT and the NT are included. It would be a grave error toexclude any part of the word. “All scripture is God breathed”.I want to stop here and say why I am thankful that our church teaches verse byverse through entire books of the Bible... Growing up topical. Strawman sermonson easy texts. It was rare to deal with difficult passages or work through things thepastor or congregation was struggling to comprehend. A pastor who preaches ashallow message will only develop a shallow congregation. 7 out of 10 youth willwalk away from the faith after they move out of their parents home. Could someof that be that we just won’t go deep in the word. To help them understandeverything they are seeing in the world, taught in schools, through the lense of realdeep understanding.6If anything of power, of God is to happen in our church it must happen through thepower that comes from obedience to this command, Preach the word. We can getcaught up in numbers, in strategy, in surveys, and start looking at all the wrongthings. To fufill the imperative in this verse, the church must be a church that iscommitted to the power of preaching as the centerpiece. The church has the task tomake dead men come alive.So now we look at the question of how the pastor is to preach. He is to be ready inseason and out of season. This is the second command or imperative. Did youknow there is no season that is not either in season or out of season? That’s all theseasons. The preacher is to always be ready to go. The verb here has a suddennessto it. It is like a soldier who has been put on alert. His bags are packed he is readyto deploy he simply stands by the phone for his orders. He is ready to go, that isthe picture here.This applies to pastors mainly, but we as the congregation can certainly apply it aswell. If our day to day life is marked by disobedience. If we are neglecting theword, if we are neglecting to spend time in prayer. If we are living in a perpetualstate of sin, then how on earth can we be ready. It’s easy to get ready for a singleevent right. We can clean ourselves up and get it together for 1 maybe 2 days aweek, but Paul says the preacher is to be ready 24/7. Not an easy thing to do, butthis is the standard by which they will be judged.Okay more imperatives coming up that answer the question “How is the word tobe preached?” We will group the next 3 together because they are sort of similaror related. Still in verse 3 we have:reprove, rebuke, and exhort. This is basically 2 negatives and a positive. Firstly,lets look at reprove. We just saw reprove back in 2 Tim 3:16. It means to correctmisbehavior or to correct false doctrine. It can almost be thought of more as ahead knowledge correction. Or to helps someone think about something rightly.Next we have rebuke. It is closely related, but it deals more with the heart. Itcarries more of the idea of the heart. When the pastor rebukes he is bringing thecongregation under conviction.7This is one of the fundamental differences between teaching and preaching. If Iam teaching you an idea or a passage of scripture I’m just talking to you so thatyou understand the idea that I am trying to communicate, but if am preaching andI am rebuking you now we have the will and the heart and conviction all takingplace. It is something entirely different.Exhort. This is the positive. Parakaleo. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is referred to asParaklyte. Which is to say that he is our helper. So Exort or parakaleo is to comealong aside and lovingly encourage.With complete patience and teaching. The preacher is not to be irritable orimpatient. Even if progress is slow and painful. I think back to Jesus and hisdisciples. Things were slow. Those guys sometimes were just slow. And healways taught with patience.Phil Robertson movie, Blind. Phil was bad. Phil had already turned away thepreacher. Phil bought a bar. Preacher came in the bar. Phil throws him out and isborderline abusive to his wife and family. He ends up throwing them out. And Philhits rock bottom. Pastors be patient. Wives be patient. Husbands be patient. Ms.Kay aske the reverend to go back and talk to him one more time.Vs 3 the preacher is to preach with urgency, “For the time is coming”. Throughoutchurch history there have certainly been ebs and flows. Times of falling away, andthere have been times of great revival. But I think the overall trend as time goes onis that more and more people turn from God. Paul says to Timothy, hey it’s the 2minute warning. It’s time to score because time is of the essence. The time iscoming, and I believe now more than ever the time has come where:People will not endure sound teaching. Some translations use the pronoun “they”here. The ESV says people, but in either case I think we should consider whothese people are that don’t endure sound teaching. At first I thought it was simplythe everybody in the world, but I don’t think that is exactly right. You see peoplewho don’t go to church have never endured sound teaching or doctrine. So I thinkthe people that are discussed here are what I call “church going people”. These arepeople who fill the seats and the pews of various congregations each and every8Sunday all throughout the world. By context that is the only way this really can beread I think. And when we think about the parable of the wheat and the tares weknow that these congregations, sometimes entire congregations are made of lostpeople.And so as we look around the world, as we look around the churches in the lowcountry, as we look around right here at GCF, what is it that distinguishes thosewho have been born again from those who have not. I believe it is a love and anembrace for true sound doctrine. Paul says the day is coming when they won’ttolerate the true word. Many times a false convert is easy to spot because theyhave no love for the truth of Scripture. Sound doctrine shines a magnifying glasson the wickedness of our sin.Paul says they have “itching ears”. Have you ever had someone ask for your trueopinion and the second that they realize you don’t agree with them they stoplistening to you. These unconverted church goers don’t want to be confronted withthe weight of a Holy God and a wicked sinner. So with itching ears they seek outsomeone to tell them exactly what they want to hear.The text says they “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their ownpassions”. I don’t know if there has ever been a more obvious time where this hasplayed out in front of us. There is a welcoming congregation for every lifestyle ofsin.And the pulpits are filled with people who not only won’tt mention the sin, butthey will contort scripture and tell you that it is not sin at all.Sin of greed. My pastor never preaches about money because he just says he letsGod deal with that.Self-help and prosperity focused churches are filled with people who want nothingto do with sermons that rebuke and reprove.I remember I was flipping through the channels and I ran across a Pastor who waspreaching to a church that was literally meeting in a football stadium, and it wasfull. I was shocked as I heard the sermon. The Bible was not even required forwhat the man was saying. And I remember thinking how can thousands and9thousands of people sit here with a Bible in there hand and not realize that this isnot the gospel?You know why... I know now. Paul just told me. The day is coming when theywon’t tolerate sound doctrine but they will accumulate ear tickling preachers. Hereyou have 10s of thousands of people having their ears tickle, and it is exactly whatthey want to hear.For preachers, it’s not easy to say the hard things. For true believers that sit heretoday, don’t fall into this trap where you avoid the hard work of searching yourheart for sin. This is why we are here.4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Theverb here that is translated “turn away” has a medical connotation of a dislocatedjoint. It is as a person turns away so quickly that they snap their neck out of joint.These folks are so turned off by sound doctrine or sound teaching that they snaptheir necks to turn away from it.These false converts then wander off into myths. I think there is principle that isbeing taught in verse 4 that if you don’t fill your mind with sound doctrine, yourmind will be increasingly susceptible to believe a lie. (garden of eden example) Bynot filling yourself with sound doctrine, or preachers without preaching sounddoctrine create in the congregation a vulnerability to deception.5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of anevangelist, fulfill your ministry.Finally Paul says to be sober minded. This is to be level headed.Endure suffering. It is not a question of if suffering will occur. Faithful preacherswho preach the word become a lightning rod for suffering. Paul knows sufferingvery well and even as he writes these words his suffering continues. It is areminder to those who do the work of ministry, not just preachers, but especiallythose who preach, ministry comes at a cost.10Do the work of an evangelist. This is the 8th imperative. It is the call to the preacherthat he must share the gospel of salvation. Its interesting that Paul doesn’t call himto be an evangelist, but to do the work of an evangelist. It is as if he wants him toremember, in everything you do as a preacher, you must also in that do the workthat evangelist would do.Simply put, the pastor is to help people come to terms with their sinfulness. Tounderstand that they are separated from God. To call all who have ears to hear thatthe time is now to repent and to trust in Christ for salvation.Fulfil your ministry. Do everything God has stored up for you, every good work tothe fullness of your ability.This text of course is primarily for preachers, but we as the congretation have arole to fill as well. We must participate in the process of sanctification.Let’s pray.