You will turn in your Bibles
today to 2 Timothy chapter 3. We looked last Sunday morning
at the first part of this chapter. It begins with these three words,
this know also. And we looked at two things that
the Apostle Paul would have Timothy to know. The first was that in
these last days, which we are living in and the church has
been living in since the Lord Jesus Christ died, the last dispensation
would be perilous times, difficult, troublesome times for the Church
of Jesus Christ. That's the first thing that we
saw. The second thing is that while false prophets shall abound,
God's purpose of saving His people shall be accomplished. Each and
every one that He chose in eternity past and gave unto His Son And
that covenant of grace gave unto his son to be his bride, to be
members of his body, to be his sheep, to be his church, that
each and every one would be called out and brought to faith in Christ. In spite of the opposition, the
gates of hell, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Upon this rock I
shall build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. The forces of hell, Satan, and
all of his hosts come against Christ and against his church,
but God sits in the heavens, and his purpose is to be and
is being accomplished. Now this morning, in looking
at the remainder of this chapter, I want to point out two things
that Timothy knew. Two things that Timothy knew.
First, we looked at those two things that Paul would have Timothy
to know, this know also. But this morning, dividing the
remainder of the chapter into these two parts, these two things,
that were known by Timothy. First, Timothy knew this about
Paul. Notice verse 10. But thou hast fully known, thou
hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which
came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions
I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them." We see here that Paul, in writing to
Timothy, was able to say, thou hast fully known these things. He didn't just say, you knew
these things, but thou has fully known these things. And Timothy
knew these things that are listed here because Timothy had been
Paul's companion for years on missionary trips. And he knew
these things by hearing Paul preach, by witnessing the way
Paul lived and observing everything that went on in his life. And
we see here that even before he began to travel with Paul,
if you look in the book of Acts in chapter 16, that's when we
are told that Paul took Timothy to be with him. But here in this
passage of scripture, Paul tells him that he knew of what had
come upon him at Lystra. And that happened, or it is recorded,
in Acts chapter 14. So Timothy had known Paul for
many years, and Paul said, Thou hast fully known. Now let's look
at what he had fully known. First of all, my doctrine. Do you see that? Thou hast fully
known my doctrine. He begins with his doctrine. Everything else that he's going
to say in this list, everything else is the result of his doctrine,
is the result of what he believed. Don't ever imagine, my friend,
that it's not important what you believe. Don't ever entertain
that thought that it makes no difference what you believe. A person's doctrine, which means
teaching, a person's doctrine influences every area of your
life. Every part of your life is influenced
by what you believe, by your doctrine, by your teaching. A
person's doctrine affects what he does in private when no one
is seen, when no human being, no eye of any man or woman is
upon you. but what you believe affects
your actions when you are alone without anyone observing you. And what you believe affects
how you live in public when everyone is watching you and looking at
you. What you believe affects every
relationship that you have, husband and wife, parents and children,
neighbors, co-workers, employers, employees. What you believe affects
everything. And that's the reason the Apostle
Paul here begins with his doctrine. Thou hast fully known my doctrine. A person's doctrine is like the
foundation of his house. What you believe, that's the
way the superstructure is going to be built and carried out. Timothy knew Paul's doctrine
of God. Timothy knew Paul's doctrine
of Christ. Timothy, rather, also knew Paul's
doctrine concerning the fall of man, what happened in the
garden. Timothy knew Paul's doctrine,
that salvation is by grace alone, by the grace of God. Now, if
I were to try to enumerate here this morning or speak to us about
Paul's doctrine, it'd take the whole Bible. When I say Paul's
doctrine, let me emphasize this, I'm talking about God's doctrine.
When I say Paul's doctrine, I'm talking about his doctrine, his
teaching, his belief that he received Not from feelings, not
from dreams and things of that nature, but from the Word of
God. His doctrine, his teaching was
built upon the foundation of God's Word. If we took one book
in the New Testament that Paul wrote and we looked at it and
said this is expressive of his doctrine, Most likely we would
go to Romans, the letter of Romans, and look at what he taught there
in Romans. How he taught that all men are
responsible unto God. That all men are sinners by nature,
Jews and Gentiles. How that by the keeping of the
law, no flesh would be justified in God's sight. How that salvation
comes by grace through the work of Jesus Christ our Lord. He
would teach about the responsibility from Romans of our life as we
live in this world, and about the hope that we have about the
relationship of Israel, the nation of Israel, as well as the Gentile
nations. If we had one letter, one book,
I suppose Romans would be that book that contains the doctrine,
the teaching of Paul. But I don't have the time to
do that. You don't have the time this
morning. But I want you to look at one verse of scripture. I
chose this out in particular. Romans chapter 5 and verse 21. Timothy, thou hast fully known
my doctrine. Romans chapter 5 and verse 21, that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. In this verse of scripture, The
Apostle Paul speaks of sin and of grace. And he speaks of sin
and of grace as two monarchs, two rulers, two kings, if you
please. Sin is one monarch, and sin reigns
and rules over all men when we come into this world. and it
rains unto death. That's the end of sin, it's death.
Spiritual death, first of all, physical death, and yes, eternal
death. Sin is a great king, ruler, monarch,
reigning over all men by nature as we come into this world. And
man does not have the power He does not have the ability to
deliver himself from this mighty monarch, from this ruler, from
this king that rules unto death. Man doesn't have the power. He
doesn't have the ability. But then we would say, well,
there's no hope. And that would be true if it
were not for this other, this other monarch, This other power,
this other ruler, who is more powerful than the first ruler. And his name is grace. Grace reigned, the scripture
says here. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness. Grace reigns, yes. Grace is able
to deliver the sinner. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world as a man, remember when he was born, the angel told
Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. He is grace personified, embodied. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. When we speak of grace,
we're speaking of Christ. And grace reigns through righteousness. That simply means that yes, we've
sinned. Yes, we've offended God's justice. Yes, God's justice demands satisfaction. And God is not going to save
any sinner unless his justice is satisfied. Unless his law
is honored. And so grace reigns through righteousness. That is by the Lord Jesus Christ
as a substitute in the place of his people, fully, absolutely,
perfectly, completely obeying God's law in their stead and
in their place. Grace reigns through righteousness. unto eternal life. Sin reigns
unto death, but thank God that giveth us the victory through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace reigns unto eternal life. The gift, the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And something you
must remember about grace and the Apostle Paul emphasizes this
in several places in Romans, but grace and works cannot be
united. It's just like water and oil. You can't mix oil and water.
And you cannot mix grace and works. He said in Romans 11,
and if by grace, if we're saved by grace, then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be by works, if we're
saved by works, then is it no more of grace. Otherwise, work
is no more of work. When you think of being saved,
and if you're here this morning without Christ, you need to be
saved. You need a savior. You need to
have your sins forgiven. You need to receive Christ as
your Lord and Savior. Now let me say something here.
You have grace and you have worthiness and you can never mix the two. If you're thinking, if you have
in your mind, somehow I've got to be worthy. Somehow I've got
to do something. I've got to clean up my life.
I've got to change this or change that. I've got to do this or
do that. What you are talking about is
that you've got to make yourself worthy. And when you say that,
and when you think like that, grace just leaves the scene.
Grace will have nothing to do with it. God saves his people
by grace, absolutely, purely, only by grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's what the Word of God teaches.
Timothy, you have fully known my doctrine. And when we think about the doctrine
of salvation, it was purely by the grace of God that God saved
sinners. But let's go on. I said his doctrine
is the foundation, but upon his doctrine, he says, thou hast
fully known my doctrine, But the next thing is my manner of
life, my manner of life. Now, religious people, I should
say religious lost people, when they hear what I've just said,
and what I've just said comes from the word of God, and those
of you who know God's word, you know it's so, you know it's true,
that salvation is not mostly of grace, it's all of grace. But religious laws, people, when
they hear that, one of the first things, one of the first charges
they bring against it is, that will cause a man to live a licentious
life, a life of sin. Why, if it's all of grace, and
some will even say, let us sin, that grace may abound. If grace
abounded more where there's sin, well then, let us sin, that grace
may abound. That's one of the charges that
is always brought by religious lost people against the truth. That that message, because it
doesn't give man a list of rules to do in order to be saved, then
man will just live in sin, just freely live in sin. Well, first
of all, you know that's not true. I'm not saying that some people
maybe haven't used this message as a license for sin. Jude speaks
of some who have done that. But I would ask you, if you are
inclined to even believe like that, look around you. Look around us at what religious
freewillism has brought to pass. We live in a day when people,
religious people, people who believe they're on their way
to heaven, they take God's name in vain. They have no problem
using God's name in a trifling way. People live in adultery
and live in fornication. They see nothing wrong with it.
I'm talking about people who are convinced they're on their
way to heaven. What has produced The sinfulness
that we see in a country that is supposedly mostly Christian. What has produced this? It is
that free will works religion, my friends. The message of God's
grace is the message that will cause a man and cause a woman
to want to live for the glory of God. want to serve God. Look in Titus just a moment,
Titus chapter two, over just a few pages from our text. Titus chapter two in verse 11,
the apostle said, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared unto all men. Now the grace of God is Christ
that brings salvation. Salvation and grace is embodied
in Christ. And when he comes into a person's
life, the life is changed. The life is changed. The grace
of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. That
doesn't mean every single solitary person in the world, but it does
mean men of all nations. Not just the nation of Israel
as in that former dispensation, but in these last days, the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. His
command is to go into all the world. Satan is bound and not
able to deceive the nations like he once was able. And God is
calling his people out of every nation, every tongue, every place on his planet. God's got his people. And when
the grace of God comes bringing salvation, it teaches us. And what does it teach a person?
You see, this is what I said last Sunday. I know some of you
were not here, but in these perilous times, there are those who deny
the power of God. They have the form of God. They
have the religiosity that goes with Christianity, but they deny
the power of God. When the grace of God comes into
a person's heart, bringing salvation, it teaches us that we deny ungodliness
and worldly lust. We live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. looking for that blessed hope
and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us. And the reason men and women
live soberly and righteously and godly is because they love
Christ. It's not because they're trying
to obtain a bigger crown in heaven or even make it to heaven by
your works, no. It's out of love. The love of
Christ constraineth me, Paul said. When we think of how Christ
loved us and gave himself for us, if that doesn't motivate,
if that doesn't move a person to want to live for Christ, to
live a godly life, then a list of rules and regulations is not
going to do it. The love of Christ, the grace
of God, when it comes into a person's heart, it teaches us to deny
ungodliness. You say, well, what is that?
Well, anything that's unlike God, anything that's against
God, ungodliness, and that's what we all were, ungodly, until
the grace of God came, and the grace of God appears, and we
began to look for the glorious appearance of the great God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Savior's coming again. We're
looking forward to that time when He comes to take us to be
with Him. Notice who gave Himself for us. Why did He die? He died for us. He died for our sins that He
might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar
people. Did you know you're peculiar
if you're one of His redeemed? that his church is peculiar.
And you know what is peculiar about God's people? Well, there
are many things, but one thing is they love each other. They
love one another. The world is described in this
letter of Titus as hateful and hated one another. But God's
people are peculiar. They love God. They love Christ. They love one another. They love
the things of God. They love to help one another.
Peculiar people. Zealous of good works. You don't
have to threaten them. I know there's churches all over
the U.S. today where the preacher stands
up and he takes the law of God and he threatens people and threatens
people and threatens people. If you don't do this, if you
don't do that, if you don't do the other, No, God's people are
zealous of good works. Not because they're afraid they're
going to maybe miss heaven, but because they're on their way
to heaven. They're zealous of good works. What can we do? How can we be
of help? How can we serve peculiar people? And I think about this congregation
and things that I know that maybe You don't know entirely, but
as a pastor, I know, I see how peculiar you are. And your love, and your serving
one another, helping one another, that's peculiar. Zealous of good
works. You've fully known, Timothy,
my doctrine, my manner of life. And then next, he names his purpose
You've fully known my purpose, Timothy. Well, what was Paul's
purpose? The glory of God. The glory of
God. You know, he wrote one of his
letters, the letter of Philippians. He was in prison when he wrote
that letter. And he said this, now also Christ
shall be magnified in my body, whether in life or in death.
Whether in life or in death, Christ shall be magnified in
my life, for to me to live is Christ. You've known my doctrine,
you've known my manner of living, you've known my purpose, and
my purpose is whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And then
he continues with faith, Long-suffering, charity, and patience. When we see he mentions his faith,
faith has to do with the promises of God. And Paul believed God. He believed God's promises. His
patience, his long-suffering, his love. And then last, he names
the persecutions which came upon him. If you turn to Acts chapter
14, you see what he's talking about here. In Acts chapter 14 and beginning
in verse 18, Paul and Barnabas had taken the
gospel to a place named Lystra and a man was healed there. As
an apostle, he had the gift of healing. There was a man there
who was lame on both his legs, and he was healed. And the people,
they said, well, the gods have come down to us. Here's Barnabas,
here's Paul. These are gods. They've come
down to us. We've got to make a sacrifice
to them. And they got some animals and
some utensils to use in sacrifice, and Paul, The scripture says
they barely restrained them when they realized what they were
doing. No, no, we're men of like passions as you. That's all we
are, we're just men. We're preachers of the gospel.
The power, the glory doesn't go to us, it goes to God. They
barely constrained them. Well, you see how fickle man
is? One moment they're wanting to
sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, The next moment, they're throwing
stones at him. That's lost man, how fickle he
is. Changes like the weather. It
says in verse 18, and with these things, scarce restrained they
the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. And
there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, persuaded
the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city. supposing he was dead. And know
this, my friends, the only reason they stopped throwing stones
that day, they thought he was dead. And he may have been. He may have been. But God wasn't
finished with him. Notice the next verse. Howbeit,
as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came
into the city. And the next day, he departed
with Barnabas to Derbe. Well, I'll never do that again.
I'll never get caught like that again. If that's what preaching
the gospel means, that people throw stones at me until they
think I'm dead, you can count me out. Oh, no. Notice what the
next verse says. And when they had preached the
gospel in that city, the next day they went to another city,
and the same day they preached the gospel. unto that city. Timothy, you have fully known
my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my long-suffering,
my charity, my patience, and the persecutions which I have
endured." And then notice, if you will, in our text, Timothy
is told, All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. He's not saying that every Christian
will be stoned, that every Christian will be fed to the lions, but
what he is saying is this. It is, as John Calvin said, it
is absolutely necessary that all of them, all believers, endure
hostility of the world in some form in order that their faith
may be exercised and their constancy, their steadfastness proved. Satan, who is a perpetual foe,
never allows anyone a whole lifetime without disturbance. You may
think, well, he's not disturbing me right now. Well, he may not
be, but you're not out of this world yet. Satan will never allow
one of God's children a whole lifetime without disturbance.
There will always be wicked men to be thorns in the sides of
God's people. False prophets will grow worse
and worse. But notice again in verse 14,
but continue. Timothy, you know these things.
You've known these things. Now, Timothy, persevere. Don't
turn back. Don't give up. Don't even look
back. Because I tell you something,
folks, when you look back, most likely you're going to turn back.
Don't even look back. If you know Christ today, if
you've been given eternal life, the joy, the peace that you have,
don't even look back to that life. that you live before Christ
and his wonderful grace came to you and saved you. Don't even
look back. Remember Lot's wife? She looked
back, and she turned into a pillar of salt. Don't even look back,
Timothy. Persevere. God's promise. God's promise is, as your days,
so shall your strength. And let me close with this second
thing that Timothy knew. It had to do with the scriptures.
That from a child, verse 15, that from a scripture thou hast
known, here it is, you know this Timothy. Thou hast known and
you've known it from a child the holy scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
truly furnished unto all good works. Timothy, there are three
things you know about God's word. First of all, all of it, all
of it is given by inspiration of God, all of it. God didn't
give these men just certain concepts or thoughts and then they wrote
down there, no, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And second, you know that the
scripture is able to make you wise unto salvation. God's word
is what he has chosen to use to reveal Christ, to teach us
of our need I remember when God's word spoke
to my heart, showed me I was lost. I was on the way to hell. I didn't know God. The scripture
said, you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Only
God can cause his word to stab in the heart of his people. And
once it does, it's able to make thee wise unto salvation, which
is in Christ Jesus. You see, salvation's not in the
scripture, but the scriptures reveal Christ in whom is salvation. And the third thing, Timothy,
you know that this is what God uses to perfect, to mature. every child of his. We start
off as babes, babes in the word of God. But we never outgrow
this book. We never outgrow this book. You
know this, Timothy. And I know those of you here
today, many of you, you know that. And that's the reason we
keep coming, keep studying, keep praying, and keep believing. God has his people. And there
may be someone here today that God's speaking to in a special
way. I pray it so. I want us to close
with this hymn, number 268, which reminds us of how firm a foundation
we have in God's word. Number 268.