2 Timothy chapter 4, and let's
begin reading in verse 1. I'm going to spend my entire
day in these 8 verses. We're going to look at the first
5 this morning, and then verses 6 through 8 this afternoon. 2
Timothy chapter 4, in verse 1, I charge thee, therefore, Before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word,
be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall
they heap to themselves teachers. having itching ears. And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
into fictions, fables, lies. But watch thou in all things,
in dear afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord
the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." I want
to look at this charge. I charge thee before God and
the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this morning that perhaps
it would be a charge to you and to me. The Apostle Paul makes
this charge here in the light of what he just said in the former
chapter in verse 3 concerning the Scriptures. He said, All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God breathed in
verse 16. And it's profitable for teaching,
for doctrine. for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto every good work." So he reminds him
of the Holy Scripture themselves. A wonderful statement. Then he
says here in our text in verse 2, preach the Word. Since it's infallible, since
it's words of life, since it is God's Word, then preach the
Word. Don't preach your opinions. Don't
preach the commandments of man. Don't preach denominationalism.
Preach the Word. The words that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are life. In the second chapter in
verse 15, he tells Timothy this, Study, study to show yourself
approved unto God. Study the Word. And in 1 Timothy
4.15, he tells Timothy to meditate upon the Word. Meditate upon
these things. Give yourself wholly to them
that your profiting may appear unto all. In 1 Timothy 4.13,
he says, give attendance to reading. So he wants him to read the Word.
He wants him to study the Word. He wants him to meditate in the
Word. And he says, by doing this, your profiting will appear. Your
profiting will appear. It will appear to yourself. The
man who studies the Word of God, who spends some time reading
it, spends time meditating in it, it's going to profit him.
It's going to profit your own soul. It's going to comfort you
and instruct you and assure you. And it's going to comfort others
because you can't fill your heart with the Word of God without
it coming out and helping others and teaching others. I love that
Blessed Old Psalms 1 where he said, Blessed is the man that
walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. And he don't stand in
the way of sinners, he don't sit in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of God, in the word of God, in
the gospel of God, and in that law does he delight. And he meditates
in it day and night. What's this man like? He's like
a tree that's planted by the living waters. He brings forth
his fruit in his season, and whatsoever he does, His fruit
and His leaves shall not wither. He shall prosper. So He tells
him here in the light of this infallible Word of God to preach
it. Preach the Word. And He goes
on here in verse 2 of our text. And notice how He says this when
He says in verse 2, Preach the Word. Be instant. Be instant. Be ready. That word means ready. Sometimes
my wife buys this instant oatmeal. That means it's ready to eat. Just put water in it and heat
it up and it's ready. Don't have to cook it. It's instant.
And Paul says, be instant. Be ready. You know there's times
when you're ready, isn't there? I come here on Sunday mornings
and Sunday afternoons and on Wednesdays and I'm ready. That
is, I'm prepared. And it's easy. I'll have my notes.
And it's in season. It's in season. I can be instant. I can be ready. It's in season.
But he said not only in season, but he said preach and teach
when it's not in season. Now, I tell you for myself, and
you probably found this too, it's not in season out there,
is it? Out there, if we waited until
we felt like saying something, we'd never say anything. If we
wait until we have something on our hearts, we may never say
anything. It's difficult when it's not
in season. Sometimes you have to force yourself. And we do it. Why? Because He
commands, preach the Word in season and out of season. There
are times, brothers and sisters, when I have forced myself to
start up a conversation with somebody about eternal matters,
about the matters of their soul. And when I started, it was off
the cuff. I had no idea where the conversation
was going. And sometimes it started difficult
and it got better. Sometimes it started difficult
and got worse. It's out of season. And it's
difficult when it's out of season. But if we waited until we felt
like it was in season, We'd probably not witness to very many people.
I've talked to some of you, and you tell me what a difficult
time you have talking to people out in this world. Well, welcome
to the club. Welcome. The pastor has that
same problem. Try this sometime. Try recognizing
it's not in season. I don't have anything prepared.
I'm not around the Lord's children. And just try to force yourself
and start a conversation. You might be surprised. That
which you begin out of season may suddenly become in season. And the Lord may bless His Word. You know, sometimes when we talk
to people, look here in the second chapter of this book. Look here
in 2 Timothy chapter 2. When we talk to people, there's
this mental block. When we talk about not in season,
there's this mental block. Did you ever have that when you
go to talk to people? You've got this mental block.
And after a while, you come to yourself after you've left them,
and you're ashamed because you say, why didn't I know that?
Why didn't I think of this passage of Scripture? It's mentally tough
to preach and teach and witness out of season. But we do it for
this reason. We may have this mental bondage,
but there's something that's not bound. And you know what
it is? It's the Word of God. It's the
Word of God. Look what Paul says here in verse
8 of chapter 2. Remember that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel, the gospel that I preach, the gospel that I believe. wherein
I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds." They put me
in jail. They put me in a chain. But look
at this. I'm bound. But the Word of God
is not bound. Paul was bound literally with
chains. He was put in prison. Sometimes
our tongues seem like they're bound. And when we do say something
that's in so much weakness, we go away feeling that we've done
no profit at all to the poor souls of men or to the honor
of God. But sometimes, brothers and sisters,
just one Scripture, just one Scripture will send light to
a poor man's soul and he'll overthrow the kingdom of the devil. and
the kingdom of darkness. The Word of God is not bound. Preach the Word. Preach it. Preach it. That's the charge.
That's the charge Paul had from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you notice how he described
the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say that He was another
God. When He said there in verse 1, I charge thee before God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not saying Jesus Christ
is another God, or He's not God. I charge thee before God, who
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the
dead at His period. He's the Sovereign Lord. He's
the Judge of all. That's why we take this thing
serious. Brother Galari said something
this morning. This is serious. This is a charge before God. And Jesus Christ, who will judge
the saved, He'll judge those who live in the Spirit, and He'll
judge those who are dead in the Spirit. He'll judge those who
are raised in their body with Him, glorified, and He'll judge
those who are dead in Spirit and have their old bodies raised,
stand in their trembling. He's the judge of all the earth,
the quick and the dead. I charge thee before God. Preach the Word. And look what
else he says in verse 2 of chapter 4. Here's some things that's
involved in preaching. Now, if I thought this was just
for Timothy, I'd have read it last week and let it lie, but
this is not just for Timothy. This is for me, and this is for
you. It applies to us. Look what he
said, be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, that
word means to tell a thought. It's a mild rebuke. Sometimes we say to our children,
now, sweetheart, don't do that. You know, don't do that. Sweetheart,
don't say that anymore. That's not a nice word to say.
Don't say that. That's a reprove. But there's
something More than that, he said, rebuke. Don't do that,
child. Don't let me catch you doing
that again. That's wrong. You're not to do
that. I forbid you. That's a rebuke. So you've got
to reprove. You've got to rebuke. And then
exhort. That means you call somebody
alongside you and you encourage them. You build them up and you
lift them up. All of this is involved in the
preaching and the teaching of the gospel and the witnessing.
And do it, he said, with all longsuffering and doctrine. All teaches and all longsuffering. You've got to be longsuffering,
brothers and sisters. We talk about this a lot, don't
we? We're aggravated at our family. We get aggravated at our children.
We get aggravated at our neighbors. We get aggravated at our co-workers.
We just get impatient. We get aggravated. Why can't
they hear? You've got to be long-suffering. You've got to be long-suffering. We've got to be long-suffering
with one another. We're slow learners, aren't we? And we learn
something and we forget it. So we've got to be long-suffering. The word is a funny word. It
means suffering long. Ain't that complicated? Suffering
long and long and long. And then in verses 3 and 4, look
at this. He gives some reasons for this
charge. I charge you, Timothy, before
the Lord Jesus Christ, the judge of all the earth, I charge you
to preach the Word. God's infallible Word. Preach
it. be faithful to preach it, rebuke, exhort, reprove, do it
with all longsuffering and doctrine. Why did he have to charge this
young preacher to do it? What he tells us here in verse
3 and in verse 4. Look at this. For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their
own Shall they heed to themselves teachers having itching ears,
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall
be turned into fairy tales, fictions, lies, fables. The time's coming. Timothy, I'm
going to have to encourage you. I'm going to have to charge you,
because I see the time coming. When I leave, it's coming quick. You're going to be tried sore
just to give up the course, to quit your teaching, to get discouraged
and quit preaching and rebuking and reproving because men are
not going to want to hear you. Isn't it strange the world wants
to hear about religion? They want to be religious. He says you're the reason they
want to be religious. Because they, it shows the evidence
because he said, they yield to themselves. Teachers, having
itching ears, they want religious teachers to teach them about
religion. Here's a man, a funny creature. He's as fallen and as far away
from God as he can be, poor thing. And yet he's the most religious
creature in all of this world. And he heaps. He heaps. We know what that means. When
you heap something up, after a while you have a big pile of
it. He heaps teachers. And he joins congregations. And they sit and they listen
to these teachers. Talk about religion. The natural
man is very religious, but at the same time, he turns his ear
away from the truth. He wants to hear about his religious
self. He wants to be told how he can
be more religious, but he doesn't want to hear the truth. That's
amazing that. I used to get the Muncie paper,
and often I noticed they had an advertisement in there for the
Universal Unitarian Church there in Muncie. And one of the things
they often bragged about, are you tired of the old dogmas? In other words, are you tired
of being preached to from the Word of God? Are you tired of
being told what to believe and tired of being told who God is? If you're tired of being told
about sin and redemption and salvation, then come and join
us. We don't believe anything. And
they bragged about that. And the parking lot's full of
people. How could that be? Because man is a religious creature. And you're going to have to preach
to him and teach to him, not because he wants to hear it,
but because he needs to hear it, and God has commanded us
to preach to him. It's strange to me, and I don't
think I'd have any need knowing what I know now, and you probably
feel the same way I do. If there's not a sovereign God
in heaven, if this Bible is not true, If there is not a hell
to shun and a heaven to gain, if there is not a Savior to know,
to know His love and redemption glory, if I don't have an eternity-bound
soul, then why am I going to waste my time congregating with
people and talking about religion? If the Word of God is not true,
brothers and sisters, I'm going to eat, I'm going to drink, I'm
going to be married, for tomorrow I die, and that's the end of
it. Who wants to obey religion that
you have to support with your hard-earned money? Why do you
want to get up early on Sunday morning and get dressed to go
someplace if they're not teaching you the truth? Paul said, Demetrius,
I charge you. Buddy, you've got a job on your
hands. You think it's bad now. You just
give it a few more days. You're going to be rebuking.
You're going to be reproving. You're going to be exhorting.
And you're going to be doing it to a world that hates the
truth. But I charge you, Timothy. I
lay this charge before God. Be faithful. Have you found this
world very receptive to the gospel? I haven't, brothers. I haven't.
I haven't. If you're looking for a pat on
the back from this world, God help you that you don't get it.
This world will not help you on to heaven. It will not bring
you nearer to God. If it commends you, is that going
to commend you to God? Somebody said about Billy Graham,
everybody speaks well of him but the church. That's a bad
sign, ain't it? Everybody speaks well of him
but the true church. That's a bad sign. Oh, preach the Word. Preach the
Word. You're going to be preaching
it to a group of people that hate it. They're religious. They're religious, and they want
to go and hear about their religious self and how to mend their religious
life. And you're going to be rebuking
them, reproving them, and exhorting them. Look in verse 5 now. Look in verse 5. But watch thou
in all things. Boy, this is a word that the
Holy Spirit loved to use. It's a word that you often see
throughout the Gospels and the Epistles and the Book of Revelation.
Watch, listen to Mark 13, the words of our Master. Take ye
heed, watch and pray. Watch and pray. Watch into prayer,
the Apostle tells us. Watch what you pray for. Watch
to make sure your prayers are answered. Watch into prayer.
For you know not when the time is." We don't know anything about
the times, do we? When we leave here this afternoon,
some of us may find it's a great time of trial. We may find it
a time of sudden temptations come to overthrow us. You know
not the times. Sudden fears are death. We don't know anything about
the times. Therefore, watch. We don't know when the Son of
God is coming. For the Son of Man is as a man taken a far journey,
who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and
to every man he gave his work, and commanded the porter to watch."
That's a command. Watch. Watch therefore, for you
know not when the master of the house doth come, at evening or
midnight, or the cock crowing or the morning, lest, coming
suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say
unto all, watch." We're not of the night, are we? We're not
of darkness. Therefore, let us watch and be
sober. Watch, the Lord Jesus said, and
not suffer your house to be broken up. What happens when the thief
comes? He comes at night, doesn't he? And you know why? People are
asleep. They're not watching at night.
And what does he do when he comes? He takes things. He takes valuable
things. The Lord Jesus said, if the householder
had known in what hour the thief did come, he would have watched
and not have suffered his house to be broken up. You and I have
a profession, and we're told to hold it fast. It's going to
be difficult if we don't watch. We have assurance that we don't
want to lose, but we may if we don't watch. We want the graces
of the Holy Spirit to increase in our hearts, but they won't
if we don't watch. We don't want to fall into some
open and profane sin, but we might if we don't watch. We don't
want to be led away with the air of the wicked, but we might
if we don't watch. I tell you, we want to be useful
for our God's glory, don't we? We want to be a help to souls
of men, but we won't be if we don't watch. Watch. Watch. I'll tell you one of the
warnings that stuck in my heart. The Master Himself gave it to
the churches. If you will not watch, He said,
I'll come upon you in an hour that you think not. Watch. Watch. What a word. Difficult
to watch, isn't it? It's difficult to watch. You
know you've got company coming, and you go to the window, and
you look out, and you go sit down, and you're uneasy. You're
anxious because you know company's coming. You get up. You go look
out the door. You look at your clock. You're
watching. It's difficult, brothers and
sisters. It's difficult. That's why Paul
laid this charge upon Timothy. Watch. Watch. Look what he says
in the next portion of verse 5. But watch thou in all things,
in everything, watch, in dear afflictions, in dear afflictions. I tell you, I think the thing
that surprised me most after the Lord saved me, the biggest
surprise I ever had in my life, that He saved me. Do you find
that so? I tell you, when I realized that,
even today I'm surprised. that He saved me, that He loves
me, that I have a hope in the Son of... I tell you, I'm surprised
at these things. Apart from being saved, the biggest
surprise that I have ever had in my life was right after the
Lord saved me, and it was afflictions, sufferings. I thought when the
Lord saved me, I thought all my trouble was over with. I guess,
Wayne, I thought, you know, he just put me on eagle's wings
and I'd go fly and sail around and look down on the world and
sail off into heaven. Boy, I found out that wasn't
the way it was. I about had a nervous breakdown
when I finally come to understand. Man alive, this way is tough. This is rough. Let me give you two or three
things that myself, in my own experience, I've come to understand.
as far as affliction is concerned. I have never experienced, naturally,
anything about how the devils and Satan can work in the mind. I had no idea how he could come
to your mind and put blasphemous thoughts in there and deceive
you and tempt you and make you think things that horrified you
towards God and your poor fellow man. And when I began to think
these things and these spirits began to tempt me and oppress
me, I tell you, it hit through me for a loop. It became an affliction
to my soul that I never experienced before in all my life. Spirits
deal with our minds, don't they? Paul talked about being buffeted.
by the messenger of Satan, buffeted, whipped in his mind, depressed
and on break. That is the first thing that
threw me for a loop, afflictions from the devil. The second thing
was this, and I remember this so well when it started. I remember
right where I was standing when the Lord began to open my heart
to let me see my fallen nature deeper than I had ever seen it
before. Oh, I knew I was a sinner. You
can't be saved if you don't know you're a sinner. Christ came
to save sinners. The Lord taught me that I was
a sinner. I knew that. I felt the guilt
of that. But I tell you, I guess I thought
that when He saved me that I would have no more trouble out of sin.
But this old nature I began to see a corruption and enmity that
was in me that I knew absolutely nothing about. That my heart
was deceitful and desperately wicked. And to this very day,
brothers and sisters, this is the greatest affliction that
I have. And I know why the apostles said,
when I would do good, Evil is present with me, O wretched man,
that I am. And when I try to do good, I
find there's evil. And it's my evil. It's in me,
in this old nature. And that's not affliction. I
don't have to leave my house to suffer these things. You feel
the same way, don't you? And you know something? It's
an affliction that you can't escape. You'll never be any better
in this world, because our problem is ourselves. So it's an affliction
we'll have to endear. Endear afflictions. You'll have
to endear the attacks of Satan, his wretched suggestions, because
you can't escape it. You'll just have to endear it.
Somebody said, we'll endear in spite of our affliction. I tell
you, afflictions is part of our course. We're appointed to these
things. We don't endear our course in
spite of it. Afflictions is built into our
course. The flesh, the old nature. And thirdly, I learned this. Affliction. from this world,
worldly afflictions. Now, I'll have to say this because
it's the truth. I'm a little bit ashamed of it,
but I have suffered very little at the hands of this world. I
just, nobody's bothered me. Nobody's ever stoned me. You
and I know a man that they've stoned. They've never whipped
me. They never put me in jail. Men
have never laid wait to ambush me and kill me. They have never
confiscated my goods. You and I have dear brothers
and sisters of old that they took their houses away from them
and they had to go live in caves. They went about in goat skins
and sheep skins. They threw them on the heads
of bulls. They boiled them in oil. They stretched them limb
from limb. They burned them to the stake.
I have never suffered anything like that. You know what has been the greatest
affliction to me? It is confronting men and women
with the truth of eternal matters. And them going blatantly on to perish. and their sins. That is the greatest affliction
I think I have suffered from this world. To warn somebody,
to instruct somebody that they have a soul that must be regenerated,
must be given life, must be washed, that there is only one Savior
that can do that, and then them turn their back and go blatantly
on and a few days later you hear, that they've gone out into eternity.
And I tell you, I tell you it pricks your conscience, don't
it? I have got some people stuck in my conscience that are dead
and gone now. And the memory of those people
afflicts my poor soul. I work with a dear old man. He's
an old man. He's an old hateful man. Don't
know why he was still trying to work. Wasn't able to do much.
But that's the most difficult man I ever talked to in my life.
I mean, he was so hard. I would sit there and talk with
him, and he'd just look at me so mean. And his countenance
would get tough, and his jaw would lock. And a few days after I quit working
with him, he died. And that old man, I still see
his hardened countenance. And it's an affliction to me.
I knew another man that I worked with, old Willie. Willie. He
was a crane driver. I saw him down at the unemployment
office one day. He was unemployed. And I sat
down by him and said, Willie, can I talk to you about... He
said, shut your mouth! And people were sitting around
him. It embarrassed me. I don't want to hear about your
God. Leave me alone. I said, OK, OK. A few days later, my wife and
I was going out in Newcastle, right there next to Bill's Diner
that burned a few days ago on the bridge, and there was a body
laying there covered up. They sent a fellow somewhere
or another, got out of the back seat of the car, running at a
high rate of speed, and it killed him. And it was Willie. I left him alone. I hope God
didn't. But that's an affliction upon
my soul, brothers and sisters. Oh, afflictions! Endear afflictions! Old Jeremiah the weeping prophet,
he said it like this. If you will not hear, if you
won't hear the gospel, you won't hear the instructions from the
Lord, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and my
eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears." Paul says,
I have continual sorrow in my heart for my brethren. According
to the flesh, the Jewish nation, oh, brothers and sisters, God
help us. God help us to be free from the
blood of our fellow man. And the only way I know to be
free is when we have an opportunity to speak to them about their
souls. Then do so. Then do so. I think if it would
mean an affliction after you've spoken to them and they've gone
out unheeded, oh, how it might afflict our conscience. if we
willingly neglected to speak to their souls. Endear afflictions. There are afflictions that children
of God must endear. They cannot escape them, and
these afflictions are necessary. They are a vital part of our
course, our Christian life, and they are necessary to make us
strong and to give us resolve. They make you tough. That's why
we need them and why we need to endear affliction. When a
baby is born into this world, he begins to eat, doesn't he?
And he begins to drink. He begins to increase in his
strength. Old Philpott says, must be exposed
to the elements. By that way, he builds up his
immune system. He begins to work and build up
his muscles and his bones, and it makes him tough. By working,
he learns to survive in a dangerous and uncertain world, and he becomes
able to endure hardships. It's the same way in the Christian
life, brothers and sisters. If we have it too easy, it makes
us soft, does it? Paul liked this word endeared.
Look here in chapter 2. Back over in chapter 2 again. Look here in verse 3. Endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. Endure hardness. Boy, I tell you, afflictions
makes you tough. You may have noticed in the bulletin
last week, we had a little article in there about this very thing. Phil Paul was talking about soldiers. Especially back in the early
1800s. If you were a soldier back then, boy, you had to be
tough. And he told some of the things
that made a good soldier. He said, when they put you on
those long marches, and your feet gets calloused, and you
go without necessary food or drink, And you sleep under the
stars and your body is wet with the dew of heaven. And you trance
through the mud and the water. It builds up your calves. And he said when you're out in
battle and you hear the sound of the captains shouting their
orders, and you see the flashings of the bayonets, And you hear
the whistles of the bullets overhead. And you come face to face with
your enemy and death. And you know you have to survive. He said these are the things
that make you a good soldier. Isn't it the same way, brothers
and sisters, in the spiritual realm? If you had it easy, And
you just lived under the Lord's manifested grace and love and
strength all the time. And you never had to face any
battles. You never had to continue in prayer. There was no night
prayer. There was no staying up reading
and watching and seeking the Lord's face. There was no hardships. Why, you'd be so soft, you wouldn't
be worth nothing, would you? We couldn't face this world and
trials with get down and fall and never get up. Endure afflictions. Look what he said in verse 6.
Paul talked about a soldier. Here he talked about a farmer.
And the husbandman, the farmer that labors, he must first be
partakers of the fruit. Why admire our farmers? They're
tough people. I'm telling you they're some
of the toughest people. I got a neighbor. That's one of the
toughest fellas I've ever seen in my life. I love to talk with
him during a drought. Or when he's got his beans coming
up and expecting a deep frost. Or when he's got to fill a hay
down and it's going to rain that night. And I asked him, Ray, what are
you going to do about this? How are you going to handle this?
You worried about this? Are you about sick about this?
And man, he's tough. He's tough. Oh, he said, you
do this. You do that. He said, you learn
what to do. Well, if it rains, your hay's
down. Well, I ain't going to worry about that. If it rains,
it rains. But don't we'll get it tomorrow. Boy, he's tough. You go by his house sometime
if you're out late at night, he'll be out in the field. He's
got work to do because his crop depends upon it. He's a farmer. He's tough. He watches. He endures
the elements. When the seed doesn't come up,
he'll plant again. He fertilizes. He cultivates. It's the same way in the spiritual
life, brothers and sisters, where farmers We're cultivators. We're
seed planters. We're reapers. Endear. If soldiers endear hardness,
if farmers endear these things, then let us not be outdone by
these people. Let us endear affliction. Endear. Look back over at our text again.
We'll bring this to a close. Starts here this afternoon. Look
in verse 5. Watch down all things, and, dear
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. I hope this applies
to us. They call us evangelicals because
we evangelize. We teach to people. We preach
to people. We witness to people. If somebody
come here Just a few times. Or if somebody got acquainted
with some members of this congregation, you know what I hope they say
about us and about you. The main thing those people are
concerned with is telling you about the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're around that people
long, they'll be opening their Bibles and show you some passages
of Scripture. Those people are evangelists. Go into all the world and evangelize. Teach. Teach. I hope I don't hurt any of you's
feelings when I say this, but one of the things that just bothers
me sometimes is when some of you dear folks hand your bulletins
back in. And I've heard some of you say,
I need an extra bulletin. I've got one. You can have mine.
I don't want it. I worked a long time on that thing. And I'll be like my dad used
to say when my mom called us to the table and we'd sit there
and we didn't like it and we'd fiddle with it. And he said,
son, if you don't like it, quit slobbering over it. Somebody
else will eat it. And if you don't like it, I'm
sorry, but maybe your neighbor needs it. Maybe somebody you
work with needs it. It's a good piece to start up
a conversation with. Give it to them and say, read
this and let's talk about this tomorrow. I just want to see
what you thought about this. Evangelize. You've got little fields of evangelism
that I can't get in and I've got no business in. And I've
got little fields that you've got no business in. But do the
work. See how he said that? The work. I've never lacked work. I think
it's a curse. When God said, you'll earn your
living by the sweat of your brow, I think that was a judgment.
I think that's a curse. I don't like to work. My wife
would tell you. I'm like Barb, the rule of my
life is guilt. I work out of guilt most of the
time. It's work, isn't it? Then why
do we do it? Why did we do the work? If nothing
else, it goes back to this. I charge you. You don't have
an option. Suck it up and learn to like
it. Work. Work while it's day. Because our night's coming, brothers
and sisters. Just a few more days here. A
few more days here. They'll tear this old building
down. Ain't no telling what they'll
put in you. Our night's coming. We're going
to lay on our deathbed. We're going to breathe out our
last breath. Work while it's day. Evangelize now while you
can, because your course is soon coming to an end. Look here in chapter 2, back
in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. Here's the way it happens. Look
at this. Look in chapter 2, look in verse 1. Thou therefore, my
son, be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus. And look at
this. And the things which you have heard of me, you've heard
them from me, or you've heard others tell you what I said.
You have heard of Me among many witnesses." Boy, Paul was a preacher,
wasn't he? He preached to everybody he could.
And when he preached to people, they told other people what he
was preaching. And they went and told other
people. He said, "...the things which you have heard of Me among
many witnesses, the same things commit thou to faithful men,
that they may be able to teach others also." You see how this
goes? I tell you. You tell somebody
else. They tell somebody else. And
after a while, everybody is talking about the Lord, about His gospel, evangelizing. Make full proof,
he said in the last portion of our text, make full proof of
your Ministry. Make full proof. Make sure, Timothy,
you're in the ministry. Make sure you're evangelizing.
Make sure you're preaching. Make sure you're doing it all
the time. And that's to me, and this is to you, isn't it? Make full proof. You love Christ? Prove it. You know the gospel? Prove it. Make full proof. Tell others. Tell others. God bless His Word. Let's pray.