For the older men

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;  the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—  that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. – Titus 2.1-5

This is such a precious section of scripture. Paul talks about the folks of people in the church, men and women, young and old.

First on the list is the older men. Quite the standard was set for them:

Be sober

Be reverent

Temperate

Sound in love

Sound in faith

Patient

The role of old men in summary is to be a pattern of good works for others to see. People must know by our lives that the word of God works and it works in the long run. We need to have grown out of most of our silliness and impetuosity and wavering. We may still get a little silly at times and things like that, but our lives should be known for something more.

There ought to be a soundness about us. We need to be well grounded love and faith so that people know that they can depend on us. These are areas where we need to be rock solid.

And by now, as hard as it is, we should have learned a measure of patience. By now our experience should have taught is to be willing to wait and watch God work. That certainly doesn’t imply laziness. We do what we can do, but then we have to wait on God. Decades of following Him should teach us how important that is.

Our lives should be a pattern for others.

All things are pure

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. – Titus 1.15-16

At the ned of the day there are only two classes of people, the pure and the defiled. There is only one difference between the pure and the defiled. The pure are those who have been made pure by the blood of Christ and the defiled are those ho have not been made pure.

False professors are a real problem. They settle in the church and their false professions begin to spread through the true church and their defilement begins to affect our purity.

In the church either people have been made pure or they haven’t.  There is no in between. This is a clear saying for us to beware of the false professors, but it is a challenge to us to make sure that we are pure.

For those of us who are true believers our purity must seen in all we do. Purity defines our lives and that is what separates us from the lost.

We must be pure, not only in sexual matters as we normally think, but in all things. We must be pure in our thoughts and our attitudes and our actions and reactions and on how we talk to and treat others. Our motives must be pure. Our dealings with the law must be pure. Purity means there is nothing untoward about us.

Manifest through preaching

God could have chosen to manifest His word to the world in any number of ways. He could have emblazoned it in the heaven like a daily broadcast. He could have fashioned the stars to proclaim His word. He could have sent of us an personal angel as a messenger from heaven.

In a general sense any proclamation of the gospel. Every singe believer must preach the gospel of Christ and carry out the ministry of reconciliation. It is up to us all to proclaim the gospel and we must be about it.

But specifically here Paul wrote to Timothy, a young preacher. God has chosen to make Himself known through the preaching of the gospel. God has called some us to publicly show Jesus to the world through our preaching. Remember how Paul told Timothy to ‘preach the word.’

Those of us who sit under preaching need to make sure that the preaching we hear manifests God, preaches about Him, and honours Him.

There is no other way to make Him known. We can show Him in our lives, but faith comes by hearing the word of God. Lets make sure that our preaching, and the preaching we seek out, makes God known to the world.

God who cannot lie

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,  but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; 

Now Paul moves on to another what we call pastoral epistle. As he wrote to Timothy, now we see Him writing to Titus. Titus was left at Crete to start and church and Titus was left to plant and pastor the church.

He starts with the most important thing He could start with – the gospel. God promised salvation to all who trust Him, and since He cannot lie He can’t go back on that.

That alone is enough to cause rejoicing, but there is a lot more we can take confidence in because God cannot lie.

I preached a message recently and mentioned this concept. If indeed God cannot lie that means that we can, as instructed in Thessalonians always rejoice, always pray and always give thanks because He has promised that, among other things:

He loves us

He knows what we are going through

He is able to handle it

He is good

He cares about our circumstances

He knows what is best

He is with us and will never leave us

He is praying for us

He is faithful

With all that in mind we can rejoice and pray and give thanks no matter what we are going through.

Truth and godliness

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;  - Titus 1.1-3

What is truth?

In our current post-modern era which claims that there is no truth, everyone will decide for themselves. What is true for you may not be true for me and what is true today may not be true tomorrow. The world’s definition for true is pretty much worthless.

But truth is truth because God’s word is truth. The greatest truth of all is the truth that leads to eternal life. Truth brings eternal life to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

This, and this alone, is the truth that pertains to godliness. It is the truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and it is the only way to godliness. The plethora of ‘truths’ in this world lead to nothing but hopelessness and despair, but the truth, God’s truth, the truth that is in accordance with holiness, leads to eternal life. 

But the Lord stood with me

But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! – 2 Timothy 4.17-18

Paul may have stood all alone in human terms, but he had something far greater to rely on ‘Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me and He strengthened me so that the gentiles could hear and He will keep me safe for His heavenly kingdom. 

Things are going to happen and there are going to be times and we are going to feel alone. I’ve felt that way myself at times.

But whenever that happens I must remember that I am not ever really alone. Jesus has said ‘I am with you always.’ We are also told that He will never leave us or forsake us.

No matter that we face today or tomorrow or the next day, no matter what headlines appear, no matter whether it is good or bad or if we are alone or in a crowd the Lord is going to stand there with and be there till we can say I have finished my course, I have run the race, and I have kept the faith by His grace.

He will never ever leave me and never ever forsake me.

All alone

Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments.

Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.

At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.- 2 Timothy 4.9-16

It is the end and sadly Paul finds himself alone. Some he had sent off to minister but some had just abandoned him. Some loved the world more than God and some had even attacked him. At his last trial he stood alone and was sentenced to death.

I hate aloneness. My grandson AJ and I are alike that way. He we find Paul well and truly alone. You can sense his loneliness in his words. Get here as quick as you can. Please come before winter. Bring my cloak. Bring my books but especially the parchments. These were the manuscripts which would become the basis for our Bible.

There will probably be times in our lives when we are too feel like we are alone. But there is one thing we can be assured of even at our loneliest time. Jesus said He will never leave us or forsake us.

These are sad words, but Paul follows them with words of joy.

All alone, but not alone.

Ready

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, 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. 2 Timothy 4.6-7

It is done. Paul’s ministry is over. The time for his departure was at end. He was facing execution. 

Sad days, huh? He must have been discouraged. Surely he was battling depression. But, he could say at the end ‘I am ready. It is time.’

Look at his testimony though:

I have fought a good fight

I have finished the course

I have kept the faith

If I were to find out next week that my life was about to end could I say the same thing? Could I say tonight that I am ready?  Have I fought a good fight? Have I finished my course? Have I kept the faith?

I don’t know when my day of departure will be hand. I need to striving by the grace of God to run the race, to finish the course, and to keep the faith.

Fulfil your work

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4.5

Finish the job. Finish the job. Get it done. If you have a job to do stay it with it until it’s through.

That’s some good advice from a children’s Christian song. It’s a great reminder for all of us. We have a work to do and we need to stay with the task and fulfil the ministry.

Quitting, or losing heart, is not an option. We stick with it until we do what God called us to do.

In another letter Paul wrote to a fella named Archippus, ‘take heed to the ministry that you received from the Lord that you fulfil it.’

Starting is good. Continuing is great. Finishing is the real test though. Anyone can lose heart, even the best of us.

The great truth is that as we try to fulfil our work, we have a God who will stick with us to the very end. He is the completer of the work He started. He will never leave us or forsake us.

So we plod away. We rely on His presence and we just keep on keep on till our work on earth is done.

Itching ears

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; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 2 Timothy 2.3-4

The time is going to come when people are not going to want to hear sound teaching, but who are only going to want to have their ears tickled with things that fancy them and what they like to hear.

I love that Greek phrase because it is so descriptive. We don’t really have a good English translation, but we sure know what it means. It means that people like to hear what appeals to them. People will look for the answer they want until they find it.

We all want people and we want people to like what we so. Most of us don’t want people to get angry at us. Most of us are not looking to pick a fight.

So it is easy to decide to scratch those itching ears.

As preachers we can't ever afford to tickle ears. As hearers we must not be content to have our ears scratched like some dog getting what he wants. Our desire should be to have our ears burning so our hearts will be challenged.

Preachers, don’t give in to itching ears. Hearers, don’t be satisfied with having your ears scratched. Demand the word and the word alone,  

Preach the word

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.. – 2 Timothy 4.2

Three simple little words – but with so much power and impact. I could go a lot of ways here but I think I am going to focus on pastoral or ‘formal’ preaching Timothy was a young preacher who, according to the rest of Paul’s instruction was a bit prone to lose his focus and get distracted with other issues. He liked an good debate and even got involved in discussions that did no good for the ministry. He had to be warned to stay on track.

Here Paul reminds him to do that in his preaching. Preach the word.

As a preacher I understand the need for that reminder. We all have our own ideas and notions and things we would like to talk about. We all can be tempted to use our pulpit and people are more than happy to hear it.

That makes it pretty tempting. Its tempting to say what people like and people can have itching ears that liked to be scratched. That want us to say things that they want to hear.

We can preach about politics and please a crowd. We can preach exciting stories and adventures. We can preach about our perspective on current events.

But none of that really matters.

Listeners can also be tempted to find a preacher they like who does not deal with their sins.  It’s nice to find someone who only preaches the ‘nice’ things and never preaches the hard things.

We must expect and demand that our preachers preach and the word and they are to preach it – and nothing else.

God breathed

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3.16-17

Why is the Bible so different? Why does it have such an impact on lives and hearts? It is called living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. How does that happen?

It is because it is God-breathed. Because it is the very breath of God it has profit beyond compare. Because it is the breath of God it is profitable for teaching and encouraging and for correction in righteousness.

Because it is the very breath of God it completes us and equips us. It has the answer, if not directly it has the principles and guidelines so that we can know how God wants us to a t or think.

Being the very breath of God that He promises to preserve, we can faith that He will use it if we just yield.

The word is not just a written version of oral history. It is not just a a series of tales and stories. It is more than just human teachings and morality lessons and stories. It is the breath of the Holy Spirit passed on to human authors as directed by Him and recorded for man to read and trust.

The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me!

Continue

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 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. – 2 Timothy 3.14-15

Continue in the things you have learned. That seems like a simple enough instruction. I think we might say today ‘just keep on keeping on.’

For most of us the Christian life is not going consist of a lot of superstar moments.  We are not going to fill our journals with loads of great successes and marvellous victories. Sometimes it is just plodding along day after day.

And that’s not a bad thing. One of our greatest missionaries was William Carey who was often referred to as ‘God’s Plodder’ for his determination despite years and years of apparent failure.

All God wants out of us is that we stay faithful. We just continue on we don’t get weary in well doing. We stay steadfast and unmoveable. We always abound in His work. We run the race with patience because He is the author and finished and He who began a good work will perform it. 

Those who live godly

Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. – 1 Timothy 3.12

There is lot of talk going on today about persecution. There are places in the world where persecution in the world is severe. Some experts say that the church is suffering more now than ever before. All over the world Christians are dying in huge numbers. Churches are burned and torn down. Pastors are arrested and jailed for preaching the gospel.

The day may well come when those of us in the west are going to see real persecution for ourselves.  At the moment what we see as persecution is nothing more than normal opposition. We have enjoyed the favour of society for so long that we have grown to expect it.

That’s not life though. It doesn’t really make sense as we are living a whole different life. The world is becoming more and more suspicious of us. No one likes to hear that there are sinners.  Our very walk in The Triumph gives of an aroma that reminds the world of what they don’t have.

Since we are not going to ‘fit in’ it should not come as a surprise that we are going to be opposed. In fact, the more godly we live the less we can expect to be accepted. People know that there are sinners and when we live holy lives it reminds them of their short falls and their consciences are pricked. Soon, Bible truth is interpreted as hateful and uncaring because it does not tolerate sin. When we point that out folks aren’t going to like it.

Don’t be surprised when the world hates us. It hated Jesus after all.

Perilous men

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  2 Timothy 3.1-2

This is quite a list of adjectives about the folks who have a part in the perilous times. Its quite a list, look up the whole passage to see it for yourself. The worst part it all looks like it is happening today. The whole list describes in detail the times we live and the people who live here today.

It’s hard to know what to do with all this mess, isn’t it? The list here sounds just like the world today. It sounds like it was written today, but this was nearly 2000 years ago. Broken men live in a broken world and all they can do is act like broken men.

In reality we don’t stand a chance. We are totally outnumbered. Watching the news is pretty discouraging. 

But we need not fear. We need to see the opportunities to reach these folks who so badly need to hear the gospel. We don’t war against the captive souls. We war against their captor as they are trapped in their sin and controlled by Satan himself. Our hearts ought to go out to them. Even while we watch them in their sin we must remember what is behind their sin.

Our battle cry is love.  Our purpose is to see them as slaves needing deliverance. Our task is to take Jesus to them. 

Perilous times

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  2 Timothy 3.1-2

Perilous times are coming. There is no doubt about it. It is a sure as day following night. There is nothing we can do about.

But we can find a way through it. That’s what this whole letter has been all about. Paul is instructing his son in the faith about how to prepare for those perilous times.

Don’t be afraid

Don’t be ashamed

Hold fast to the teaching

Pass it on

Be strong

Be a good soldier

Run fairly

Remember the resurrection

Endure

Study

Avoid foolish babbling

Stop arguing

Strive for purity

Be a fit vessel

Flee youthful lusts

These and more will get us through tough times. We can’t help that, but we can help how we respond.

Stop bickering

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. – 2 Timothy 2.24-26

The servant of the Lord must not quarrel.

What, did I read that right? The servant of the Lord must not quarrel? Sometimes it seems that that is all we do! I myself have been involved far too many quarrels over the stupidest things.

We are looking in the next verse at perilous times and perilous men coming. If they are coming would we not do well to stop babbling and stop fighting and dealing with our sin and passing on what we have learned.

This isn’t a game to be taken lightly. It is a shame to see some many servants of the Lord today quarrelling of politics and masks and vaccines and shutdown and how much to obey the law and music this and that and that and this.

Quarrels over all these things distract us from the task at end. There is a world out there dying without Christ and we quarrel over wearing a mask. There is no place for this nonsense.

I watched a discussion on whether or not our church attire reflects our view of God. Foolish me could not keep my fingers off the keyboard then regretted my decision.  This petty stuff is the stuff that seems to cause the biggest fights. I’ve seen and sadly been involved in far too many of these.

This just isn’t right.  We don’t have time. There are bad guys out there. There is a world that needs Jesus.

Stop bickering.

Fit for the Master's use

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honour and some for dishonour. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. – 2 Timothy 2.20-21

There are all sorts of vessels in the household. There are  common vessels and expensive. Some are fit for everyday use and some of for special events of occasions. Some are made from expensive materials and some from wood and paper.

And that’s fine.

In God’s house too there are all sorts of vessels. Some are vessels of many skills and abilities. Some are refined and have that certain sense of class. Some seem to be able to do anything.

But most us are just us. Most of us are just regular folk. Most of us are just who we are. We may not have great skills or abilities or talents. We don’t speak well. We may not even feel worthy of service. 

The wonderful truth is though that God has a purpose for each and every vessel in His house. He has made each of us for our own purpose and according to His perfect plan.

The thing is though that nobody wants to use dirty vessels. The type of vessel doesn’t matter, but whether it is clean or not does matter. Only vessels that are clean are fit for the Master’s use. We can’t be useful if we are not dealing with our sin.

Our desire should be vessels fit for God to use, honourable in our behaviour, set apart and useful, prepared for every good work.

Lets make sure that our vessels are clean and ready for God to use.