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2 Timothy (Part 5)

2 Timothy — Steve Gregg
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2 Timothy (Part 5)

2 Timothy
2 TimothySteve Gregg

Renowned biblical scholar Steve Gregg delves into the rich teachings of 2 Timothy, highlighting the importance of adhering to sound doctrine, steadfast faith, and a virtuous life. Touching on Paul's experiences in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra during his first missionary journey, Gregg warns of the impending rise of evil impostors and the increasing persecution faced by believers. Drawing from 1 John 2:15-17, he emphasizes the need to prioritize one's love for God above worldly desires. The lecture concludes with a reflection on Paul's commendation of Mark's usefulness and God's capacity for forgiveness, urging Christians to endure trials with faith and trust in divine deliverance.

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Transcript

You have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, probably meaning the city of Antioch, not his home church of Antioch, because he also mentions Iconium and Lystra, which were the cities that Paul visited on his first missionary journey. Lystra was where he picked Timothy up. That was Timothy's hometown.
Basically, Timothy was well aware of the persecutions and afflictions that happened there, including the time he was stoned. He was stoned in Lystra, and Timothy apparently was aware of that too.
But persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me, even out of being stolen.
He was raised up and survived that, seemingly, miraculously. So the Lord delivered me out of all these things. But he does not expect to be delivered out of his present crisis, except through death.
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Some men are going to get worse.
The rest of us can look forward to being persecuted by them. If you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution. You must feel bad that you haven't been persecuted much.
Maybe you haven't been godly enough.
Or, on the other hand, maybe the persecution you're enduring is not at a high level at this point. We all receive some persecution, whether we know it or not.
There are some people who shun us, or talk behind our backs, and so forth. It's not very painful to us if we don't know it. But it is persecution of sorts, and there may be a time when it will erupt into more visible and painful forms.
But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned, and have been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by the Spirit of God, or better said, is God breathed out from God.
And is profitable for doctrine, which means teaching, for reproof, and correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Had I not spoken so frequently on these verses previously, I'd be tempted to go into great length on what this was about, some of my favorite verses. But you all know what I think about them, and you've all heard me speak on them before.
I would simply point out that all here is indicating that since the scriptures come from God's own mouth, they are breathed out by God, they are therefore the reliable standard for teaching, for correcting,
and also for giving instruction, positive guidance in righteousness, in righteous living. There are other sources we may consult, Godly people may give us advice, and even some worldly wisdom may not be too far afield in some cases, but there is no standard better than the scripture. And the man who has the scripture, who is a man of God, with the scripture in his hand and in his heart, is a man who has all that he needs.
He is completely equipped for every good work. He is a complete man or woman, and is completely equipped for everything he needs to do for God.
Which seems to suggest that additional specialized psychological training or studies in philosophy or other things are not really necessary in order to be well rounded, but simply to know what God has said and to stand by it is the best equipment you need.
We will dash through chapter 4, there are not too many doctrinal points to make, just personal points for the most part.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead and is appearing in his kingdom, which means he will raise the dead and rapture the living and judge them all, and is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, that is whether it is convenient or not, discharge your duty in the mystery whether you find it easier or difficult. In the particular season in which Paul is running it was a difficult season.
It was out of season to be a Christian, or we might put it the other way, it was open season.
Preach the gospel whether it is in season or out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering, which means patience, and teaching. Patiently teaching, and that teaching is to include convincing teaching, perhaps apologetics, rebuke, which is basically setting people straight when they are wrong, and exhortation which literally means encouragement.
So these things are all elements of the teaching that he is involved in. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. It is not just that they will drift from it, they won't endure it, they won't tolerate it.
Sound doctrine will be offensive to them, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachings, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
Now, again, Paul is probably talking about something in the near range future from his time, not directly speaking to our times, though the temptation is great to see how our times fit this passage. It does not mean that he is prophesying the days that we are living in.
He is probably prophesying a period that already came and went shortly after he predicted it.
But, it certainly has a secondary application to many different situations, including our own, and they turn their ears away from the truth, and preferring fables. Certainly the theory that man evolved from a blob of protoplasm, or even from hydrogen atoms, is a fable.
It is like Apostles fables. If you say a princess kissed a frog and it turned into a prince, that is a fairy tale. If you say the frog had ten billion years and became a prince, that is called science.
There is no more, no less a fairy tale whether you give them ten billion years or whether it is a kiss that does the work.
It is still magic. It is still fables.
It is still foolishness, but they prefer it because they cannot tolerate the truth. Because the truth makes moral demands on them that they are not willing to acquiesce to.
By the way, someone, you know, basically, evolutionists believe everything came from hydrogen.
That in the beginning was hydrogen. One famous evolutionist said, in the beginning was hydrogen. You know, as an obvious mockery of the Bible.
Because he believed that everything basically came from hydrogen.
One person responding to that remark said, then we should define hydrogen as an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas which, given enough time, becomes people. Kind of puts the thing in perspective, you know.
Kind of a ridiculous definition of hydrogen, but that is how apparently evolutionists understand it.
Verse four, they will turn in ears from the truth, they will turn in heart of fables, but you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of evangelists, fulfill your ministry. The word evangelist is not used very many times in the Bible.
It means, when it comes from the Greek word, which transliterated in English means evangel or eungalian in the Greek, it means the good tidings, the good news.
And an evangelist is someone who proclaims good news, or someone who preaches the gospel. But the word is used seldom.
It is used three times, I think, in the New Testament. Once, Philip is called an evangelist. Philip the evangelist, the confessory and Paul, and his company stayed with him overnight on his way to Jerusalem.
Then also we have, of course, the statement he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers in Ephesians 4. And then here, Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. So the word evangelist and evangelism is not really very common in the Bible, but it simply speaks of the work of preaching the gospel. Certain individuals are called evangelists, some are evangelists, not all.
He gave some evangelists, Timothy apparently was one of them.
Make full proof of your ministry, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering. He saw his death as like offering himself up like an offering.
In the Old Testament, sometimes wine was poured out on the altar as an offering to God, just like animals were. Paul told the Romans to present their bodies as living sacrifices to God. And as long as you are alive, you should be a living sacrifice.
But even when you die, you can be a sacrifice. You can pour out your life on the altar, as it were, as a drink offering in martyrdom.
And the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also all who have loved his appearance.
Some people love pleasure, he said earlier, more than God. But a Christian will love the appearance of Christ because he loves Christ and he longs to see him. A Christian who is too comfortable or too attached to things in this world is not going to be too eager for Jesus to come and interrupt him.
I have actually heard Christians, I remember a wife of a good pastor, once mention, she said, I am not that eager for Jesus to come back, after all I am enjoying myself.
Well sure we enjoy ourselves, we enjoy God, but if you had a loved one who was overseas and riding a horse, would you enjoy his letters more than his presence? Obviously, if we love Jesus and he gives us joy, how much more do we long to see him and be in his presence for the fullness of joy, in his right hand, for his pleasures forevermore. Christians who love the Lord can look forward to being crowned, but only if they, like Paul, have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith.
Some have left the faith, but he has kept it and finished the fight and the race. And that is obviously something that is required if you are going to be crowned.
9. Be diligent to come to me quickly.
The main business of his writing comes up finally. I want you to come. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.
1 John 2, verses 15-17. 1 John 2, verses 15-17 says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
A person who loves the world does not at the same time have the love of God.
And he says, Demas has forsaken me, he has loved this present world. He didn't love God anymore. He has departed to Thessalonica.
Crescens, another co-worker, for Galatia, and Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Now, it's a little scary, the latter part of verse 10, not quite sure what he said about Crescens and Titus.
Demas has gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to Dalmatia. We don't know why Titus or Crescens went where they did. They might have been sent there by Paul on an errand, and they might be faithfully discharging their duty.
In view of the fact that he says, Demas has forsaken me, loved this present world, and he has departed for Thessalonica.
It's a little strange. He wonders, is he also saying that Crescens and Titus have under similar circumstances gone to the places they went? I hope not, because Titus, of course, had earlier received a letter that will later say, it's the letter of Titus.
It would be a shame to think that he had received this letter from Paul and later departed from Paul in the same sense that Demas did.
It would make more sense if Bill was Luke, since there is no actual decision, no Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia, and only Luke is with me as their spiritual leader. The word departed is the implied verb in those clauses, whereas with me, is with me, is really the verbal clause that applies to Luke.
Now, Luke is the only one that Paul has with him at the moment. He didn't have Oedipus with him, and he didn't have any of these other guys who are now all gone, although two of them, Crescens and Titus, may have been gone on good terms. They may have spent them on errands to check things out.
So we can't assume the worst. He says, get Mark, and we assume that's John Mark, and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for the ministry.
So, he wanted Timothy to come and bring Mark with him.
Interesting, because we don't know too much about Mark, but we do know that there was a conflict between Barnabas and Paul back in Acts 15 over whether Mark was promptable or not.
Barnabas wanted to take Mark on the second missionary journey, Paul didn't, because Mark had proved himself not very promptable on the first missionary journey and abandoned him. If this is the same Mark, and most assume that it is, then it would appear that Mark had regained Paul's confidence.
Mark had, in the intervening years, proved himself to be faithful.
According to tradition, he traveled with Peter. 1 Peter closes with greetings from Peter and from Marcus, my son, the same Mark, John Mark.
Not Peter's physical son, but a son to Peter like Timothy was to Paul.
But now Paul is affirming of Mark as a useful person. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus, which proves that Tychicus and others, maybe, were being sent places, and that might include Crescens and Titus.
Bring the cloak that I left with Carthus at Troas when you come, and the books, and especially the Parsons, who commented on that earlier. Alexander the Conquestant did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works, and let the Lord punish him.
You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. Since Alexander the Conquestant, we have speculated already before, he was mentioned along with Hymenaeus, if it is the same Alexander, in the first epistle of one of the heretics that was troublesome to the Church. 16.
At my first defense, meaning his first hearing before Nero, which the book of Acts does not extend so far as to include, no one said with me, but all perceived me, may it not be charged against them.
Now here is an interesting point. Paul was forsaken by his brethren, and he could have been bitter, but he wasn't.
He said, may it not be charged against them.
And similarly to what Jesus said, Father forgive them. And Stephen at his death said, Father do not lay this sin to their charge.
Similar to what Paul now says. Interesting, Paul had heard Stephen say that before he was a Christian. No doubt it was that statement of Stephen among other things that led to Paul's conversion.
Because Stephen prayed for Paul as he died, interceded for him. And now Paul just before his death wishes almost identical verbal wish for mercy on those who have abandoned him. Echoing Stephen's sentiments and Christ's before him.
But the interesting thing here is that while he doesn't wish for these people's sin to be charged against them, yet he has different attitudes towards Alexander in verse 14. Let the Lord repay him according to his works certainly means permission because his works were bad works. So we have an interesting thing here.
Paul wishes an inquication on one man who has done wrong,
but on these others who have done wrong he doesn't wish them to be hurt. Why? Because it's against him to be. Right.
And I understand it's because those who have forsaken have only wronged him.
And he does not hold any personal grudges. Alexander, we're told in verse 15, has greatly resisted our words.
That is, he's an opponent to the truth. He's an opponent of the gospel. He's not just an enemy of Paul, he's an enemy of truth.
He's a heretic. He's destructive to the church. He's hurting a lot of people, not just Paul.
Therefore, he wishes that God would put him out of commission. He wishes that God would punish the guy. Very much like in the Psalms, some of the Psalms David wishes that on people who are evil.
He wishes judgment on them. But as far as those who have just personally rejected Paul, or done him personal injury, he doesn't wish them any evil. He actually hopes that they will be forgiven.
Verse 17, But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. That is, at his trial. No one else did, but the Lord did.
So that the message might be preached fully through me. And that might mean that God's blessed that he was released from that prison so that he could preach in further areas, perhaps even in Spain. And that all the Gentiles might hear.
You see?
And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Some have felt this means that he actually was facing the possibility of being thrown into the lions before he was vindicated in court. That one of the options was that he might die at the mouth of lions.
And that is possible. We know that Nero did feed some Christians through the lions. But that was not the normal means of execution of criminals.
Later emperors also fed a lot of Christians through lions. But Paul, as we know later, was killed by the sword. And so we're not sure if he really was in danger of actually being fed the lions.
Delivered out of the mouth of the lion might be a reference to Nero himself as the lion. There is evidence that the early church spoke of Nero as the beast. And in Revelation 13 where the beast, his mention is this, the beast had the mouth of the lion.
The very same expression Paul uses here. I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. From the beast, that is.
All the early Christians understood Revelation 13 to be describing Nero. It's not a very popular view these days among Bible scholars. But the early view was that Revelation 13 was a description of Nero.
And therefore the beast with the mouth of the lion might have been Nero. If that interpretation is correct. And therefore Paul might have been using a well-known expression among the early Christians.
Nero is the lion, or the beast. And he was delivered out of his mouth by fetish. He was not executed on his first trial.
And being a Roman citizen he couldn't have been sent to the lions, right? I suspect not. I suspect not. Because I think that execution by the sword is an intrinsic right of Roman citizens.
I know they couldn't be crucified. I'm not sure whether the lion was another option or not. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work.
Notice, God delivered me from death before. I don't expect him to deliver me from death again. But what I want to be delivered out of is not out of death but out of evil work.
God can deliver me from the sinfulness of my behavior. That's my real enemy. Death is not what I fear as much as sin.
I don't expect God to deliver me from death this time. He did last time. But he will deliver me from sin, from evil works.
He will keep me from that which I really dread. And that is that he will keep me from compromising my integrity and my goodness. God who delivered me from the bear and the lion will deliver me from this.
There you go. There you go. Like David.
Like David who said, God who delivered me from the mouth of the lion, Paul the bear will also deliver me from the hand of the stillness. There may be something that is implied here. Because he's, like David says, God deliver me out of the mouth of the lion.
David said that too. But then David said, and God will deliver me from the stillness. Paul doesn't say, and God will deliver me from sin, essentially.
Now, of course, every evil work might not be personal sin. It might be the evil works of others. God has suffered from the evil works of many people.
And he might mean that by dying I will escape all of this abuse. God will deliver me out of this world, this veil of sorrows, where I've been subject to many evil works of evil men. But they're not going to be able to follow me where I'm going.
See? God will deliver me out of that. That's a possibility too. But at any rate, he is not saying he expects me to deliver from death.
He may even be saying that death will be the deliverance he's looking for. To him be glory, who is able to deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Greek Priscilla. Prisca is short for Priscilla.
And a household of Ephosiphorus. Not Ephosiphorus himself, however. Just his household.
Remember he was mentioned earlier. His household was mentioned. He's the one who visited Paul in chains and robes.
And it's not certain whether he survived that visit. A raptor stayed in Corinth. A trochanth had left sick in Miletus.
Which is a strange thing. Since Paul healed so many people, sometimes in Ephesus even, he was able to send handkerchiefs and aprons from his body. And not only did people get healed from them, but demons came out of people when they received them.
I mean, he had some real anointing there. But here's a case in Miletus, not very far from Ephesus, where he left one of his guys because he couldn't heal him. He was sick, but hopefully he's recovered since.
Do your utmost to come before winter, because of course he needs to bring Paul's cloak, and he'll need that. So it says in verse 13, and he may not expect to live beyond winter anyway, it's hard to say. Eubulus, Preachu, as well as Prudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren.
Not to say Charlie Brown. And the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Which is a typical way of closing his epistles.
Grace be with you all. Okay, that's it. We did run quite a bit over time, but we have to do that...

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