2
Tim 4:1-5
The Primacy of Preaching
Background--uses
of the Word of God
2 Tim 3:15 and that from childhood
you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise
Five phases introduced by
"for." This is what the Word of God did. These are the expected
effects:
Savingly:
A. for salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus.
16 All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
For Sanctifying graces:
B. for doctrine,
C. for reproof,
D. for correction,
E. for instruction in righteousness,
The end of its use--completeness….
17 that the
man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1. A solemn Charge
1 I charge you therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His
appearing and His kingdom:
2. The Content of the Charge
2 Preach
the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with
all longsuffering and teaching.
3. Realistic Expectations of Some
People
3 For the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves
teachers;
4 and they
will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
4. Your Calling in Preaching
5 But you
be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry.
Let's look at the text:
1. A solemn Charge
1 I
charge you
This
is an apostolic commission to Timothy. He has no choice in the matter. Timothy
has been called by God, through the laying on of Paul's hands with the rest of
the elders. It is a solemn thing to be commissioned to lead in Christ's church.
The
word used is derived from the word for martyr--one who pledges to give his life
for a cause. In the Early Church, all but one of the apostles followed the
example of the Lord as they gave their lives violently to fulfill the ministry
of the gospel. Only John seems to have died a natural death of old age on the
island of Patmos. Yet, there are some stories of the early saints that have
even John dying a violent man at an advanced age. By reading his letters, it
seems certain that his commitment to Jesus as Lord was as great as any of the
other apostles.
One of these Apostles, Paul, charged
Timothy solemnly to follow the Lord Jesus no matter what. E have previously
looked at many of the things that Paul suffered. We have noted the contrary men
in Ephesus who were the aim of Timothy's arrows as he shot, or proclaimed the
Word of God among the people in the church at Ephesus.
It is amid these difficult people of
which we read in Ephesians and the letters to Timothy, that Timothy was called
to pastor, among others in a variety of places. With the difficult people in
what I think was the most difficult of the NT churches, Timothy is given this
solemn charge. Or, rather, is charged a second time by Paul. We find it in 1
Tim 1:18. That charge in particular was about spiritual warfare that would be
Timothy's experience among those attached to the church in that place. Then in
verse 21 the charge was increased to include a charge to Timothy to do what he
has been told to do without prejudice or partiality. Prior to that, Paul urged
Timothy to charge the Ephesians to teach no other doctrine than what they had
heard from the Apostles and Timothy. These solemn words of a charge obligate
Timothy to do what he has been taught for the good of Christ's people in that
place. And, that those who do not believe might be exposed as apostates. More
about that later.
The charge is given in the presence of
God. This formula is usually thought to use the generic term God, for God the
Father. The invisible God who only revealed himself in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is also invoked in this charge by name, not just
by implication. We read:
therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Together,
the first two members of the Godhead are called upon as witnesses to the
promise being made.
All such promises made are made in the
presence of God. When a church in gathered together, even if it is only two or
three, God promises to be with them. Paul is certain, with absolute surety,
that this charge is given in the direct presence of God--even though, the
Father was never present visibly and the bodily form of Jesus had already
ascended to heaven. God is still aware of all that his people do. And, even
aware of what everyone in his creation is doing at any moment. Read the second
half of Psalm 33 if you ever doubt the omniscience and omnipresence of God. It
is God,
who
will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
…that
is invoked to take note of what Timothy is being charged to do.
In
our day, people forget that God knows all things and brings all things to pass
for the sake of Christ's church. Jesus takes special note about how people
treat his bride--just like any spouse should care for and protect her.
God
will judge all men, women, boys and girls at the point of their death. Hebrews
tells us "It is appointed unto man once to die. After that is the
judgment.. All the living and the dead or as the KJV reads, the quick and the
dead. It is a solemn thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
He
is everywhere seeing everything that each of us says or does. You might steal
an extra goodie at the fellowship lunch. And, do it in a way that your parents
never see. But, you know what? Even God is invisible, he is still there--he is
everywhere--and he knows what you did. And, he knows why you did it. Or, when
someone does something out of sight of their parents or their husband or wife.
Don't relax--God, who knows all things and has total recall with a perfect
memory, knows the specifics of what you have done. Nothing is hid from his
sight--Mark 4:22 says, There is nothing hidden that will not be made known. Jer
16:7 reads that nothing can be hidden from the face of God or from his eyes. He
sees and knows all things. In the judgment to come, Jesus will be the judge
with flaming eyes of fire. He will reveal all sins and hold people accountable.
The only way out is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul. You
might still be called to give an account, but Jesus will step in to pronounce
you not guilty by virtue of his death for you and the gift of faith in
you--that faith justifies you from all sin you have ever committed. But that
comes through God-given faith and repentance.
The judgment of a holy God is one area
where even the most hardened of atheists tremble. They know, IF there is a
judgment, and they know they deserve one, they will of all men be most
miserable. There is something about the thought of God's judgment that calls the
most hardened sinner out to change their behavior--as if reformation or
renovation will save them. They will not. Right belief in the Lord Jesus Christ
is needed--Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!!!
We are also told the content of the
charge. Or, rather, the solemn content of the charge. There is nothing funny
about it, even though people try to make light of it. Many pirates and
notorious men went to the hangman's gallows aware of their sin and what they
deserve from a holy God. And, in the records we have, of the words from
notorious men about to be hung are often about how they failed to listen to
their parents, especially their dear mothers. Under the sentence of a deserved
death, great sinners know what they deserve--justice, without mercy.
TO some God grants undeserved mercy, to
others they get justice, but in God's court of justice where he gives out his
judgment, nobody gets an injustice. Some get what they don't deserve. Everyone
else gets what they truly deserve. None get injustice.
What will you say when you stand before
this judge with perfect knowledge of all people? What will you say to the judge
who knows all things perfectly? What would you say knowing you can't fool a
being that knows everything about every one?
You will bow your knee in submission to
God and the Lord Jesus as you profess his name to be above every other name.
That is the name Jesus. You will have nothing to say.
What if God communicates to you somehow
asking why you didn't listen to the preacher who warned you about your sin? It
horrifies me that my sermons might be the reason for your condemnation. But, it
also gives me great joy to consider that it might be through the ministry here
at Heritage, or through the faithfulness of your parents, that you might come
to faith and repent. That is one of the biggest reasons why we are here--we
believe it is for your eternal good. So, listen carefully to those who preach
the Word of God to you. It is the means by which you might be saved and grow in
grace.
Therefore,
2. The Content of the Charge is
important. This charge, by extension, is applicable to this church. It is not
just for the Ephesians. The Holy Spirit inspired it and providentially
preserved it as scripture for all churches in this age.
The charge is what you should expect. It
is one of the ends to which I labor. What Paul said to Timothy comes with the
same authority of God to all faithful ministers in our day. We are to take
those scriptures that make wise for salvation, that contradict our sinful ways
in thought and deed, that show us how we ought to live after putting off our
sinful ways and to instruct us in true God-revealed righteous living. The final
use of the Word of God for the man of God is to….
2 Preach
the word!
Be ready in
season and out of season.
Always be prepared to preach. It is what you are called to do. After
selecting the first Deacons, the Apostles said, "we will give ourselves
continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." The elders take
the place of the Apostles in the early church. These two functions are what
define the office of elder: to pray and to the ministry of the Word. How often
did it say?
Continually. As some of you know this word and continuously are the words
used to test how well a non-English speaker can write the English language. My
friend from Poland had to take a test of English as a Second Language before he
could study for a PhD. The only thing he had to do was to write an essay
contrasting the words continuous and continual and explain how they are used in
proper English expression. Continuously means all the time. Continual means in
frequent intervals. A hacking cough affects us continually. Gout gives unending
or continuous pain until it goes away. There are hardly two other words that are
so close in meaning as to distinguish between them.
The apostles and elders are called to pray and to preach, not all of the
time, but as the two main functions in their regular pattern of labor. So, to
be Charged to preach, is to be called to a lifestyle of preparation, study and
meditation in order to get God's Word from his mind expressed in his revelation
across to other humans.
Then specifically, it includes the items from Paul's list:
When you preach, be practiced enough that you can:
Convince,
rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
All of these are generally in line with the uses of scripture seen in
verses 3:15-17. Nothing is new to what Paul has already charged Timothy to do
in this book or in 1 Timothy. It is a reminder. And, we all need to be reminded
from time to time--even pastors who have been in the ministry for many years.
All who preach need to be reminded about these things.
Some of us might forget to do one or more of these things we are charged to
do. Some are harder to do than others. Some are easier and they become the only
things some men will do. That isn't being faithful to the charge to PREACH THE
WORD!
We need faithful men who are God-pleasers rather than man-pleasers. There
are few in one category and too many in the other. Paul is deadly. He is right
on the target. He is realistic about human nature and what it caused people to
do two thousand years ago. And, people are very uniform in their actions. Even
in our day we find only a few who want the Word of God proclaimed with
application to their lives and consciences. Many preachers want to be liked by
men more than they want to be pleasing to God. You should want the latter even
if your sins are knowingly or unknowingly pointed out. That is the preacher's
calling. To… Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
Why do we need
these things in the public ministry of the Word? It is because we need to have…
3. …Realistic Expectations of Some
People
3 For the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves
teachers;
4 and they
will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
The image is that of throwing away on a garbage pile. Times will come, it
may be different in a variety of places, but in the lives of churches, times
will come when people will not be able to stand the sound of sound preaching.
No matter how faithful the preacher might be--some will not endure him or the
preaching. They will discard preachers by throwing them out with the garbage.
The picture is of a whole heap of preachers piled up and considered useless.
What else will they do?
4 and they
will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
They will repudiate the truth of God, that is, the Word of God Paul has
been writing about. They won't want anything to do with its right
understanding. Because they don't want the work upon them that the scriptures
may have once done. Their consciences can't take being corrected or instructed
in righteousness. People who repudiate the ministry of a gospel church end up
promoting bizarre doctrines spawned by others. Someone who used to go here
recently posted to the internet about God's third most powerful force on the
earth. I wish we could have a discussion about it. I would like to see if you
could guess this powerful force. After God and the Angels, there are women.
There are other examples of how others have turned away from the truth
taught over many years, in some occasions. They set themselves up for misery as
well as God's judgment--according to this passage. Paul ends his charge to
preachers by writing to Timothy about…
4. His Calling in Preaching which is also what I am called to do as long as
God keeps me in the ministry:
5 But you
be watchful in all things,
What do I do if while watching over the
flock, I find real or potential dangers? What if information is given to me
that could have a detrimental effect on the testimony of Jesus by sin in this
church? What am I to do if sin is found and its not a personal matter between
me and one person? TO be faithful to God, I must act in one way of another.
That is why leaders are commanded to be about these difficult tasks. Pray for
your leaders. To criticize them and not follow them is sin Heb 13:17.
endure afflictions,
What did Paul believe would happen to
Timothy and others serving God's people like him? The realistic expectation is
affliction. Pray you will be a part of the solution and not a part of the
problem. There are some people who have left us that will stand before the Lord
Jesus Christ to answer for the problems they caused. And not a few through
lies, slanders and gossip. God knows what has been said person to person or
among the gossipmongers on the telephone. As soon as one person was confronted,
they couldn't leave quick enough with their fear of being exposed. Gossip is a
church killer. Take a look sometime as to how gossips should be treated. God is
not pleased with them either. I am sure at the judgment some will be called out
on this sin and that this sin will expose the lack of true faith in their
hearts. There were men I had to stop going to lunch with because I was always
being pumped for information about others or being given unsubstantiated
personal information about others.
Even in the church, there will be
people who don't have faith. Timothy is told….
….do the work of an evangelist,
Whenever the pastor talks to others
privately, he has to be aware of the need to evangelize. Some people think they
are saved with very few works and very little if any fruit. They want to be
considered among God's people. But, they don't seem to have real faith and true
repentance.
In doing these difficult things along
with continually giving themselves continually to the Word and Prayer, it
allows the men to be faithful to Christ for your good. It helps them to…
fulfill your ministry.
That is for the glory of God and the good of men. We
point sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way to God's full and
free salvation. Look to him and live by the faith that only He can give.
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