Guest Speaker - Dr. David Whitcomb
- Timothy’s background and weaknesses
- Mother was Jewish and father was Greek (Acts 16:1-3)
- Raised by his Mother and Grandmother (2 Tim 1:5)
- He was remembered for his Tears (2 Tim 1:4)
- Timothy was frequently Sick (1 Tim 5:23)
- Timothy was Afraid and Despised (1 Cor 16:10-11)
- Timothy’s training under Paul
- Timothy did some Bible Teaching (2 Cor 1:1, 19)
- Silas and Timothy cared for Paul’s Physical needs (Acts 17:14-15; 18:5)
- Sent ahead of Paul to make arrangements (Acts 19: 21:22)
- Timothy heard about the problems coming to Ephesus (Acts 20: 4)
- Timothy’s Task Ephesus
- Deal with false Doctrine (1 Tim 1:3)
- Fight the fight and keep the Faith. (1 Tim 1:18-19)
- Avoid debating false teachers about controversial questions. (1 Tim 6:3-5, 11-12)
- Timothy’s Failure – He found out that he was not Paul!
- Timothy stopped using his Gift (2 Tim 1:6)
- Timothy was Timid (2 Tim 1:7)
- Timothy had become Ashamed (2 Tim 1:8, 12)
- Timothy feared Suffering (2 Tim 1:8)
- Timothy had stopped Teaching Sound Doctrine (2 Tim 1:13)
- Why did Paul choose Timothy?
- Phil 2:19-22
- 1 Cor 4:16-17
- Restoration and advice.
- My beloved Son (2 Tim 1:2)
- Paul prays for Timothy Night and Day (2 Tim 1:3)
- Timothy’s faith is Sincere (2 Tim 1:5)
- Be Strong, and teach Faithful men. (2 Tim 2:1-2)
- Preach the Word in season and out of season. (2 Tim 3:16-4:5)
- Outcome
- The false teachers Folly will become obvious to all. (2 Tim 3:8-9)
- Revelations (Rev 2:1-3)
- The apostles were False
- The test was the Scripture
- The church was Saved
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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All right, good morning And we certainly want people to be in involved in small groups and maybe I'll have a video in a week or two Letting you know about mine Can I have the first slide, please?
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So last week we talked a little bit about the church at Ephesus and We talked about the beginning of a great church and some of the problems that were being faced and this week I'm going to talk about Timothy and his mission in this church.
00:32-00:32
Next slide.
00:35-00:52
So, just to get oriented, what this map shows is the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, and the travel that Paul had, and right in the middle of it is Ephesus and Miletus.
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And what we saw last week was that Paul had established a church at Ephesus that was one of the greatest churches ever.
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He spent almost three years teaching until all the area that is now Turkey, which the Romans called Asia, heard the word of the Lord because of this.
01:11-01:24
However, we also saw that later Paul came back and he sent for the elders at Ephesus to come to Miletus and had a message for them as well.
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And the message was a terrifying message and we're going to talk about that today.
01:29-01:31
But before we do, let's open up in a word of prayer.
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Our Devotee Father, I pray that we would have insight into your Word, and that we would understand what you would have us to know, and that we will search your Word to make sure that these things are true.
01:49-03:40
What you see is, also in this picture on the far left, is Rome, and we know what happened with the Roman Catholicism and its influence, but I'd like to focus today on Ephesus. Now the thing that I wanted to remind you of is last week we read a little bit about the message that Paul gave to the elders from Ephesus after he'd spent three years there teaching. And what he said was very interesting and I'll just read this for you, it's not in your outlined it's in Acts chapter 20 verse 28 through 30. He says, "Be on your guard for yourself and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the flock or the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." And so what we see is the church had been attacked from the outside because of a riot and now it was going to be attacked from the inside. And the terrifying thing is that the attack would come from among the leaders themselves. Who were they? How were they to be defended what was going to happen in this church to preserve the truth and Paul gives in this advice therefore be on the alert remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease admonishing you with tears and now I commend you to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you inheritance among the saints. He didn't tell them who they were.
03:40-03:47
He said, "I commend you to God and the word of His grace." That was it.
03:48-04:00
And so, the greatest church that had ever been seen up to that point in time was under a warning, a prophecy that a disaster was coming.
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And what we pointed out last week is every time God does a great work, Satan opposes it and attacks it.
04:09-04:17
It has happened in every church that has ever been founded, is that Satan attacks.
04:17-04:26
This church has the potential of having a tremendous influence throughout our area, but it will also be attacked.
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What do we do? How do we expect and prepare for this attack?
04:33-04:42
Well, this brings us to the story of Timothy, and I've given a detailed outline on the back of your bulletin.
04:43-04:53
Now, the reason is that almost every word that I'm going to say is on here, so it's not an outline in a broad sense, it's an outline in a detailed sense.
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And we'll spend a little bit of time going through that.
04:56-05:05
Now, if you have a pew Bible, or one that you took from the back, We'll be looking at 1 and 2 Timothy as our major text.
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That begins on page 642, so that you can put your marker at that point, 642.
05:13-05:23
But I'd like to begin today with an introduction of Timothy, which is in Acts chapter 16, verses one through three, that is on page 601.
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601.
05:36-06:18
So in Acts chapter 16, and we talked about the book of Acts giving a description of all the places that Paul had gone, it says, "And he came to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, certain disciples there named Timothy. This is the first time Timothy is mentioned. He's the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but his father was Greek. So his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek. And he was well spoken of by the brethren who enlisted in an Iconium. And Paul wanted this man to go with him. And what's interesting is that we never hear of Timothy's father again.
06:19-06:33
I don't know what happened to him, but you never see him and what you see is that Paul acts as his father and talks to about Timothy as his son and decided to bring him up and to train him.
06:34-06:43
And so Paul wanted this man to go with him. And he took him and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were within those parts for they all knew that his father was Greek.
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And so Timothy, even though he had a Jewish mother, and we don't know where his father was, had never been circumcised, never really followed the Jewish tradition in the way of a Hebrew male.
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And so Paul circumcised him just to, because Timothy was going to be traveling with him in that concession.
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Now, on the other hand, Titus, who is another individual that followed Paul and traveled with him, Paul said, "I refuse to have him circumcised and to give in from that standpoint." But in this case, young Timothy was circumcised and then spent the rest of his life following Paul around.
07:25-07:30
Now, let's move to 2 Timothy chapter 1.
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And as I said, we'll spend quite a bit of time in 1 and 2 Timothy.
07:37-10:13
So in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5 it says, "For I'm mindful of your sincere faith which is in you, which dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your father your mother Eunice, and I am sure that is in within you as well. That gives us even more confirmation that he was actually raised by his mother and his grandmother. And have we seen families where the mother is struggling, we don't know where the father is, the grandmother comes in and helps raise the child. This is probably what Timothy faced. It was the grandmother who really was the person of faith and came to help her daughter under difficult circumstances. Timothy had the circumcision. The grandmother had the circumstances and helped to raise this boy Timothy and Paul saw that he was without a father and a father figure and had compassion for this kid and decided to bring him along with him. But if you back up into verse 4, Paul in writing to him as he says, "longing to see you as I recall your tears that I might be filled with joy." So Timothy was emotionally somewhat of a weak person who was subject to crying and he was someone who was often tearful. In 1st Timothy chapter 5, and if you just back up a couple pages in verse 23, he gives us a little bit more insight into Timothy. So now Paul is writing his first letter to Timothy and he points out in verse 23, he says, "No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments." So Timothy was not only emotionally weak and subject to tears, but he was also physically weak and had stomach ailments and sicknesses. He was a weakling and a sick little boy that really had not had a father to raise him to look after him and that's who Timothy was. But one of the most amazing passages is in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 because Paul never says this about anybody anywhere else in the Bible.
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It's unbelievable. It's on page 625 if you're looking for it.
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But let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 16 to get a little bit more insight into the kind of person Timothy was.
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1 Corinthians chapter 16. It's the last chapter in 1 Corinthians.
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chapter 16 and verse 10.
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And Paul says to the Corinthians, "Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord's work as I am also.
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Let no one therefore despise him, but send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me, for I expect him with a brethren." Has anybody else been given a warning, "Now I'm going to send somebody, but he's very timid, and he's afraid, and you're going to scare him, so please be very gentle with Timothy." That's what it says. It's unbelievable.
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And he says, "Let no one despise him." What kind of a kid was this?
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He was such a weakling and such a loser that when he came with a message from Paul, everybody said this kid's a loser He probably started crying I'm serious. That's what it says. This is that So that's that that's a little insight into who this person Timothy was so he was afraid and despised So our first set of the outline his mother was Jewish. His father was Greek He was raised by his mother and probably primarily by his grandmother.
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Paul picked him up and took care of him, was a father figure to him.
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He was remembered by Paul for his tears.
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Timothy was frequently sick and Timothy was someone who was afraid and despised by others.
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Now Paul that there's a variety of things that happened as Paul trained him.
12:32-12:41
One of them, and we're not going to necessarily go there, is in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 1 and 19.
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What it tells us is that Paul, during his teaching, had Timothy and Silas and other people help with the Bible teaching.
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So we know Timothy was able to teach the Bible.
12:53-13:07
Going back to Acts, and we're going to be working through this section of Acts again, Acts chapter 17, and I'm going to read verses 14 through 15, and then chapter 18, verse 5.
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Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 14, it says, "And immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea, and Silas and Timothy remained there.
13:23-13:33
Now those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens and received a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible without delay.
13:33-13:52
So this story is Paul's missionary trip and he was in Thessalonica and he went from Berea to Thessalonica and was threatened and they had to take him away and send him on to Athens and then Paul and Silas who were caring for him stayed to take care of the business there and then we're going to go catch up with Paul in the future.
13:52-13:59
And so these men were working with Paul as well.
13:59-14:28
And chapter 18, verse 5, it says, "When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ." And so in that time of history, It was a tremendous amount of effort to take care of your daily needs, because they didn't have microwaves, believe it or not, and they didn't have other conveniences, so it was a big effort.
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And Silas and Timothy helped Paul by taking care of those physical needs and preparing for him so he could dedicate himself to teaching the Word.
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So Silas and Timothy cared for Paul's physical needs.
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If we go forward another chapter, chapter 19.
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Now we looked at this last week and this describes the incredible growth of the church in Ephesus and it talks about the riot and the disaster that occurred when the people that were taking care of the temple of Artemis and selling the little souvenirs were losing all their business and they started a riot.
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Right in the middle of this there's an interesting verse that I'd like to draw your attention to today And this is verses 19, excuse me, verses 21 and 22.
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It says, "Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Archaea, saying, 'I have been there, and I must see Rome.' And having sent to Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while." So now we see Timothy here again being sent ahead to make preparation and get ready for Paul so when he came he could devote himself to teaching.
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So this is what Paul had trained Timothy to do.
15:58-16:12
He taught them the Word and taught him about how to care or prepare for Paul so that when he came to a new city he was able to immediately start teaching and there was no time wasted in trying to support himself.
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and these people played a very important role early on.
16:16-16:24
Now let's go forward to chapter 20, because Timothy was with Paul at a very critical time.
16:25-16:42
And what we see in verse 4, it says, "And he was accompanied by," and he lists a number of people that Paul was traveling with, And third from the last, you see, Timothy is along with this group of people.
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Now, why do I point that out?
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Because that was the group that stopped in Miletus and heard Paul give the prophecy that there would be savage wolves attacking that church from the inside, and that from among the elders, people would arise, saying perverse things, and tearing the church apart, breaking it up, and destroying the church.
17:09-17:16
So Paul, in speaking to the elders, had another audience there, and Timothy was there listening, and what was he thinking?
17:16-17:27
He thought, "This is a disaster. This is a disaster, and the last thing I want to do is have a part of this," when he heard about the problems coming to Ephesus.
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So now let's get to the heart of the teaching today in 1 Timothy.
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So Paul sent two letters to Timothy about five years apart, and the first letter he sent was called 1 Timothy, and it's on page 624 of your outline.
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And let's turn to 1 Timothy, and I just wanted to point out a couple things in 1 Timothy that...
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highlight the problem.
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So 1 Timothy chapter 1, the very first thing that Paul points out in verse 3, he says, "As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia," this is one of Paul's later trips, "Remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines." Oh my stars. Can you imagine Timothy?
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He knew that it was going to be a disaster, the church was about to be attacked.
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The beginning of it had already occurred.
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People were starting to teach alternate doctors and twisting the truth.
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and twisting things and tearing the church apart by destroying its foundation.
18:52-19:00
And Paul urged him to stay there and teach these certain men, not to teach false doctrines.
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Verses 18 and 19 of chapter 1.
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He tells Timothy, "I have a suggestion for you." No, I'm sorry. He says, "This I command, this command I entrust you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecy previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, and keeping the faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regarding to their faith." What was the effect of these false teachings?
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Faith is shipwrecked. People's spiritual lives are confused and destroyed and the effectiveness of God's Word is lost if you grab on to a false doctrine.
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And Paul commanded Timothy to fight the good fight, to keep the faith with a good conscience.
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He also told him in chapter 6, another important thing, and I can't go through this whole passage, but I'm going to give you a little bit of flavor of it.
20:20-21:02
In verses 3 to 5, it says, "If anyone advocates a different doctrine than Timothy was to teach, and does not agree with sound words, which are those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with doctrines that conform to godliness, he has conceded and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and he goes on and describes that in more detail, constant friction between men of depraved minds and deprived of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
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So again, Paul says, "Don't get involved in fights with these people because you're going to get sucked into philosophical arguments and stay away from it." Instead, he points out in verses 11 and 12, "Flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and that you made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses." So Paul leaves Timothy at Ephesus to teach sound doctrine, to deal with a false doctrine, to fight the fight, not to argue with other people, but to teach the Word. Now the next section is one of the saddest passages in the entire Bible. 2 Timothy is, in my view, even worse than Lamentations. It is a terribly disappointing letter that Paul sent to Timothy about five years later. The first thing in Timothy's failure is, you know found out? After five years at Ephesus, he found out he wasn't Paul. He was not an apostle. He didn't have apostolic authority. People despised him. Just because Paul sent him there didn't mean that people didn't despise him. Let's look what happened to poor Timothy.
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Verse 6, "For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of the hands." What happened to his gift? Why does he have to kindle it again?
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Because it's burned out. Timothy stopped using his gift.
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You don't restart something unless it's stopped.
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It's like a campfire when you get up in the morning that's almost completely burned out, and there's a few ashes, and if you gently blow on it, you can get a little bit of a flame and hopefully start a fire going again.
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That was Timothy.
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Timothy was a burned-out campfire who was done.
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What had happened?
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What had happened in that previous five years where Timothy went with great confidence and a strong letter of instruction from Paul, and instead, it was a disaster?
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Look at verse 7. "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." What was the problem? Timothy had shrunk back. He was timid. He was too timid.
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And the power of God is not one of timidity. He was relying on his own ability, his own sense of who he was and the authority that he had from being training with Paul, and it was a disaster.
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Look at verses 8 and 12.
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"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me, his prisoner." In verse 12, "For this reason I also suffered these things, but I am not ashamed.
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For I know who I have believed and convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted him against that day." What happened to Timothy?
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Those false teachers had beaten him so badly that he was ashamed of who he was and his association with Paul.
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And Paul goes on and says, "Everybody in Asia has turned against me.
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These false teachers have turned the entire church against me and against you.
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And now you're ashamed of even knowing me.
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You're not using your gifts. You're afraid and timid and you become useless.
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In verse 8, the last half of verse 8, Paul says, "Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God." He was afraid to suffer. He'd had a little taste of being beaten and he was afraid and withdrew.
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He just, he did not want to suffer.
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And verse 13, he says, "Retain the standard of sound words, which you have heard from me in the faith and love for which in Jesus Christ," verse 14, "guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you." Timothy had stopped teaching sound doctrine.
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He was afraid to teach the Word because people were making fun of him, they were ridiculing him, They were embarrassing him and he became a complete failure.
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He was not only physically a loser, spiritually and in this responsibility, he proved to be a loser.
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But we're not done yet.
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Why did Paul choose Timothy?
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Why did Paul send Timothy to this church where he knew that the most vicious attack that Satan could muster was about to hit that church, and he sent Timothy?
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Do you know why?
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Well, if you turn to page 637, which is Philippians chapter 2, Paul gives us a little insight into Timothy that we may have missed.
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And I certainly would have missed.
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Paul says to the Philippians, "But I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I might be encouraged when I learn of your condition." Now listen to verse 20.
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"For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
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I have no one else who cares about people." In verse 21 it says, "For they all seek after their own interest, not those of Christ.
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But you know of His proven worth, that He has served me for the furtherance of the gospel like a child." serving his father.
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Do you see what Paul saw in this weak man?
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Let's look again at 1 Corinthians 4, in verses 16 and 17.
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Paul says to them, "I exhort you, therefore, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways for which in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church." So Timothy not only knew how to teach, he knew Paul's way and how to live a Christian life, how to care for people, and was someone who loved the Lord and he loved people, and Paul could trust him to demonstrate how a Christian should live their life.
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Now, 2 Timothy doesn't end with an outline of these disasters.
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This is a sad book as well.
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At the very end, Paul says in chapter 4, verses 7 and 8, he says, "I've fought the good fight, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith.
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In the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness with the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, not only to me, but all those who love his appearing." And indeed, this was the end of Paul's ministry.
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He's in prison.
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His sentence was due.
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There was going to be no escape in Paul's mind.
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That's it.
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He had nothing left, no one like Timothy, and Timothy had been a complete failure and he wrote this letter to try to urge him.
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So how does Paul help restore Timothy to the man of God that Paul was expecting?
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Back in 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 2, he says, "Timothy, my beloved son." Timothy is a man who apparently had no earthly father that was actually a father to him.
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Paul had become his father and doesn't say my father in the faith or my son in the faith he says my beloved son because Paul had raised him as a son. In verse three he says I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did is I constantly remember you in my prayer night and day.
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Timothy knew Paul and what God had done through Paul, and the knowledge that Paul was praying for him night and day had to be an encouragement to him.
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He was not abandoned. God was with him.
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In verse 5, we looked at this before, "For I am mindful of this sincere faith within you." It wasn't fake.
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Timothy, even though he had looked at himself as someone who was going to take on this challenge and failed, did love God. He did want what was right.
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He just got to focus on himself and what he was going to do, and got beaten severely, and was afraid and was withdrawn.
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But his faith was sincere.
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Chapter 2. Paul gives him the same advice he gave him before. Don't argue with the false teachers. Don't get entangled in these controversial issues because you're gonna be torn to shreds. There are no rules when they're talking to you and they're smart and they're manipulative and they're political and you're just gonna be drawn into this thing. It'll be a disaster.
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That's what he said in 1 Timothy. In 2 Timothy, he points it out in a different way.
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2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.
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"You therefore, my son, be strong." We talked about last week. What does it mean to be strong?
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And how do you do it? Well, the answer is you just suck it up and you're strong.
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You're going to stand, you make a determined effort that you're going to do no matter what.
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not backing down anymore, you're going to be strong.
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And that's what Paul told them, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ, not in yourself.
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You're not being strong in yourself.
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Timothy, you're a weakling.
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Everybody sees you as a loser, but you need to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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And the things which you have learned from me in the presence of many witnesses, These entrust to who?
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Faithful men who will be able to teach others.
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Timothy, I want you to redirect your ministry to where I told you to do it in the first place.
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Just teach faithful men who can teach others.
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Those who want to grow and to learn the Word and they can pass it on to others.
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That's what you're to do.
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Teach faithful men. You can teach. Find faithful men and teach them.
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Chapter 3, verse 16.
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Very well-known verse.
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Paul reminds Timothy that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped, may be adequate, equipped for every good work." What is Timothy's secret weapon? It's the scriptures. It's the scriptures that Timothy is to focus on, and that's it.
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Teach the scriptures to faithful men.
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And you know why?
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Because Timothy is weak.
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But the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of bone and marrow, to the soul and spirit.
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Hebrews says, "Behold, all things are laid open and bare to those with whom we have to do." If Timothy teaches the scripture, there is nobody that can stand against God's Word.
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Paul goes on in this same passage.
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He says, "Be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of your ministry." Let me read beginning actually in verse 1.
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Chapter 4, verse 1, "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by the appearing of his kingdom." That's a pretty strong charge, isn't it?
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Charging him in the presence of God.
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Verse 2, "Preach the word." Timothy, stop arguing and preach the word.
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Be ready in season and out of season.
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Now Timothy said, "Well, you know, when I was in Corinth, people like to listen to my Bible studies, but here they don't want to hear me.
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Well, you know what?
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That's out of season.
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So when it's out of season, what are you to do?
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Preach the word.
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It doesn't matter what the circumstances are.
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It doesn't matter what's going on around.
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He says, "Preach the word, in season and out season.
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"Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience "and all instruction, for time will come "when they will not endure sound doctrine, "but wanting to have their ears tickle, they will accumulate for themselves teacher in accordance with their own desire, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
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But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." So that was the advice that Paul gave Timothy, who restored him by pointing out he loved him as a son, that he prayed for him night and day, that he had a sincere faith that was a true faith, and that he needed to preach the word in season and out of season.
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Well, that's the end of 2 Timothy.
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Timothy's never mentioned again.
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What a sad book, where Timothy had completely failed, and Paul had poured his life into this church.
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Everybody had turned away.
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He knew that there was going to be vicious attacks from inside.
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He sent the only one who really cared for people, gave him clear instructions, and Timothy failed.
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Well, Paul dropped a little hint as to how victory could be won.
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Back up just a page or two in 1 Timothy, and I want to read a verse in 2 Timothy, I want to read a verse in 2 Timothy 3 that is very, very revealing.
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2 Timothy in chapter 3, as Paul in the first part of chapter 3 talks about how bad the false teachers are, And then he points out in verses 8 and 9, "Just as Janice and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men will also oppose the truth." Well, Paul, I knew that. I know that there are people that are opposing the truth. They're men of depraved mind, rejected as regards to the faith.
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Yeah, I know that.
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But, they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, so as those two men came to be.
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How could these people be opposed?
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You teach the Scriptures, and when the people understand what the Scripture says, when they've studied the Word and been taught the Scripture, it becomes obvious why the false teachers are false and where the lie is, and everybody recognizes they're false teachers, and they don't follow them.
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That's it. They're exposed as false.
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And as soon as everybody knows they're false, they're finished.
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Did you know that?
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But the only people that can make that are ones who actually know what the truth is.
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If you know what the truth is, the folly of the false teachers are exposed and they're finished.
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That's the secret right there, hidden in the middle of chapter 3.
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That's what happens. Their folly becomes known to all.
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Well, Timothy's not mentioned again, but I'd like you to turn to Revelation chapter 2.
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Revelation chapter 2 was written by Apostle John.
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He had been exiled to an island off the coast of Turkey near Ephesus.
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He was late in the first century.
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Timothy, it turned out, had been martyred probably around 97 AD.
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So, John writes a letter, and in Revelation chapter 2, he writes this, "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this, and listen carefully to what he says about the church, because this is not written to the elders, this is written to the people.
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"I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot endure evil men." How in the world did they knew who the evil men were?
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He goes on and says, "You put to the test those who called themselves apostles." So Timothy was a little runt that was sent by Paul who was despised to try to oppose people who claim to be apostles and outrank Timothy and they were eloquent and they had all kinds of philosophies and interesting things that they were saying to pull people away from from God and this church. And And it says, "They put to the test those who called themselves apostles, and they were not.
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And you found them to be false, and you have persevered and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary." How did they know to put these men to the test? And what was the test?
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Well, they found the apostles were false and the test was the scripture. Did what they say match with scripture or not? And they could put them to the test because on one hand they heard the apostle but the other hand they knew what? They knew the scripture. Timothy must have listened to the advice that Paul gave him and gotten his strength together and found some men that he was able to begin to teach. And he taught them because they were able to teach others. And they did love the Lord. They did want to know what the truth was. He taught them the truth.
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He taught them how to search the scriptures. He taught them how to test doctrines to find out if they were true or if they were false. The people of the church started saying, "Wait a minute. What you're saying is not in Scripture." And they've showed from Scripture that the false teachers were false, they were exposed, the folly of their false philosophies and doctrines was made evident to everybody.
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And it says right here that the whole church now is in a position where they could test anybody, no matter how acclaimed they were, according to the Scripture, because they had to know the Scripture.
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So how can a disaster be averted in this church?
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We better know the scripture.
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And that better be what we're teaching in small groups so that we can go through passage by passage and understand what the scripture says and what it doesn't say because I guarantee you, Satan is on the march and you're going to be bombarded with all kinds of confusing things and when it's confusing and murky and you don't know what people are talking about, you've got the scripture.
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And if you know it, you have clarity, you'll do the right thing, you'll put people to the test, and you'll find out whether or not it's true or false.
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And if you do, you'll be able to be... you'll be saved.
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You'll be saved from the disasters of following a false teacher.
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And boy, we've seen so much shipwreck and disaster in the Christian church because of false teachers that nobody understands.
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Nobody can see that what they're doing is false and they're pulling people away from Christ.
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And nobody seems to know. They just wander along like lemmings, instead of being sheep, listening to the voice of the true shepherd, and not following false teachers, but following the true shepherd, because they know the voice of the shepherd, they know what's right and wrong, and they know the scriptures.
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So the church was saved. The church was saved.
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Now that story of Timothy is an amazing story.
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There's lots of things that are kind of inferred as you look at different parts of scripture about what he was as a man, and he wasn't much of a man.
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He was emotionally weak, he was physically weak, he was despised by other people, he was afraid, he was timid, but he was with Paul for a while and learned Paul's ways, and you want to learn how to do? You learn how to follow Christ.
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and he learned to love people and he knew the scriptures and you know what that made him? That made him number one in Paul's sight and he was the only person that could be successful in the church at Ephesus. But you know what happened to him? He must have got the idea that he was like Paul and he was somebody else and he was gonna come in there and straighten things up and he got beaten severely, so bad that he just got discouraged and quit.
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And you know what?
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There's a lot of people here who have been in other churches that have been beaten severely and quit.
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You know what the message Paul has for you?
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Be strong, suck it up and be strong and study the word so that you know right from wrong.
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And what we see in Revelation is that however the message got out, there's evidence that the people knew the Word, and those false teachers and vicious wolves that came in were tested by Scripture and they could not stand.
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Their folly became evident, the trickery was gone, the deceit was exposed, and they were finished.
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But you know, it doesn't end here.
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The training of the people in Ephesus came to populate the whole area of Turkey and Asia.
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And some of the greatest church fathers who clarified doctrine came from that legacy.
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As a matter of fact, there was one who turned out to be in Ephesus about 140 AD.
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and he wrote a famous letter to the the the bishop at Rome that said we understand that you're claiming to be the head of all the churches and you know he said but you know what we're going to do we refuse to follow tradition we refuse to follow any man we will follow only scripture and the teaching of the Apostles. He was a minor person, not much is known about him, but he was at Ephesus and was about 65 years old at that time, so he knew Timothy. And the other leaders in that area of Asia joined with him and sent that letter, and the bishop at Rome was furious. He was outraged and tried to excommunicate everyone in Asia that wouldn't bow down to him. And there was a first crisis and finally they said, the guy in Rome, he said, "For sake of peace, settle down." And so that didn't happen. But crisis after crisis and error after error that came up in the Christian Church, there were people from all other areas of the world that were confused and got twisted in their study of Scripture, but the area of Asia remained absolutely convinced that it has to be Scripture alone and the teaching of apostles, period. And that legacy changed the entire church and that area remained a center of truth for 400 years. What we know about studying the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone and not following the tradition of men or the authority of someone who puts themselves up as an apostle or a leader or some other thing and isn't following Scripture comes from here. That's the only place where that really was clear and taught and you know what the legacy is? This church today. This church today is based on the Scriptures as the authority of God and that's what we follow. It is an independent church, it's independent from other men, but it's not independent from God, it's directly through scriptures we follow that legacy.
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That was the clarity that Timothy taught and the legacy of what he established in Ephesus when all of Asia had turned away from Paul and his teaching, when it looked like it was a disaster, when he had personally failed, he fell back on the one thing that was still left and that's an irresistible force and a weapon that Satan cannot stand against, which is the scripture. So I hope you've learned a little bit about Timothy, who from a human standpoint wasn't much of a man. In a disastropher background, he was emotionally and physically weak, despised by other people, but he had something that changed the world.
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Because Paul was gone, and I'm sure God would have worked through someone else, but he worked through Timothy.
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And the keys were that he truly cared about other people, he knew the Scriptures, and It was the scriptures alone.
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And the people he taught learned how to put to the test anyone teaching any doctrine to find out if it was true or if it's false.
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And be determined and strong that no matter what, they're going to stand on the truth.
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Now what I'll tell you is this church is going to be attacked because that is the pattern over and over again.
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Does anyone know how to prepare for that attack now?
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Do you know what to do in preparation for what Satan has planned for you?
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Do you know what to do?
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Get in the Word.
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Learn what the Scripture says.
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You say, "Well, you know, this isn't a good time.
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"Well, that's out of season." And Paul says, "Preach the Word out of season." And they say, "Well, you know, this is, have some time, well that's also a good time because that's in season. So like I said last week, I'm trained as a teacher and not as a preacher, but this is a message that I think this church needs to hear because in addition to all the other activities and going on, Satan's at work and what I wanted to talk about is the core of what makes a great church, who's opposing it, and the secret way, and it shouldn't be secret, but the way that God has prepared to defend his church, to defend the truth, and to have an impact on the rest of the world.
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Thank you.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.