Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the second epistle of Paul to Timothy and chapter three. To Timothy chapter three and verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.

Paul's direction to Timothy continuing in the way shown us by God. Often it is, when we come to a new year, you hear of those making New Year's resolutions. What they shall do, what they shall achieve in the coming year. Now, with the people of God, there is a much higher a higher standard, a higher way of entering upon a year or indeed continuing at all. And this is what Paul is setting forth before Timothy.

With all of God's children, there comes a time when their hearts are changed, they are given the new birth, when they are given a spiritual life that they did not have before. And when the Lord does that, he sets them in the way of his steps, as is set forth in Psalm 85. And he shows them, he teaches them the way that they should go. and bids that this is the way that not just for a day, or an hour, or a year, but for the rest of their lives, that that should be the pattern of what they should do. And it is this that we need reminding of as we come to a new year.

Are there those things that the Lord has shown us over the years, and what a blessed privilege if we realise He has. and that we have got a new nature, and the Lord has taught us and has instructed us, and are there those things that we have forgotten, we have let slip, that we are not continuing in, so not seeking new things, but looking back, remembering times and occasions, blessings, words, circumstances, times the Lord has taught us and impressed, specific truths upon us, and to then have this word as not applying to Timothy but to us, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.

Now we read together in Deuteronomy, the second reading of the law of God, the commandments of God. we would be reminded that all of the scriptures of truth and all of the law of God, it is man's duty to obey and to receive as the word of God and be that which we follow after. Paul is very certain of this in the following verses following our text that All scripture is given by inspiration of God. He says, thou hast from a child known the holy scriptures, and he's lifting up the scriptures, including the law, including all the Old Testament. And we have, of course, the New Testament as well.

So those commandments, they apply to all men. All of us are under the law of God. And the Lord came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil the law. They believe it is not under the law as a condemning sentence. He is not really under it in any sense. But as he views that law that our Lord fulfilled, as he viewed the law that is given, his desire and the direction of the Lord is that he fully obey and follow in all the ways of the Lord, not in any way sinning that grace might abound, but paying heed to all of the word of God. And so we would be reminded of that as we begin a new year.

Good to be reminded of the law of God, the law that those that are not yet believers, who have not yet and given faith in Christ are still under, and that law condemns. Who so is guilty of one point is guilty of all. And the law was given that all might be brought in guilty before God. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and sin it brings forth death. And the Lord Jesus came to suffer, bleed, and die, to put away the sins of his people, to satisfy the demands of that law. And so we should have a very high regard of the law of God.

But before we are called, we do not have any power or will or desire to fulfil that law at all. The natural man receiveth not the things of God, Neither can he know them, though spiritually discerned. We have regard to the law in a natural sense, is to try and obey it to obtain salvation. We are looking for something that we can do to purchase salvation.

But for God's people, their continuing their obedience is not to obtain salvation, they have been given it. But it's so that they have a clear conscience and that they please God and they have his presence and they have the blessings that are promised to them that obey the Lord and delight in his ways. Not with the yoga bondage of condemnation, but of that walking, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ has completely fulfilled that law and therefore it is not laid to our charge when we do not completely fulfil it. No man can. There's no man that doeth good and sinneth not. Sin is mixed with everything we do.

Never should we view our obedience, our walk as any way of meriting salvation. But it is a fruit where we desire to walk in the Lord's ways, where we love His word, love His commandments, where we love what he has taught us and regard to it, it is a fruit, it is a token, it is an evidence. We may have many, many years ago been set in the way of the Lord, but we have from year to year that continual evidence of being set in it when we continue in it, when we still are found walking in the Lord's ways after 45, 50 years of pilgrimage, we are still found seeking to do the will of the Lord and to walk in His ways. That is a great blessing, a great privilege, a great token that the Lord has put us in this way and kept us in this way.

But here the apostle felt needful to say to Timothy, but continue thou. What is the context? Beforehand, he speaks of those that are persecuting. He speaks of the afflictions and trials and things that he endured. And he speaks of those that are living godly in this world which shall suffer persecution, and evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's the backdrop. And then he says, but continue thou a difference.

Bless God if the Lord has made a difference between us and the world, between those that tear nothing for the things of God and made us to esteem all the words of the Lord as pure words, as right words, as the right way.

I want to look then firstly at Paul's charge to Timothy, beginning at this verse, and then secondly, the way being taught to all of God's children, and then a way to be continued in. But firstly, the apostle's charge here to Timothy, Continue thou. We might say continue thou in want. This very word is a very searching word. I remember once it was preached and there was a person came up to me afterwards and said what a good word it was. But I spoke to them and I said to them, you must be careful what you continue in. Because that particular person, though giving perhaps many evidences of being a believer and doing many things in the assemblies of God's people, had not walked in the Lord's ways. They hadn't been baptized. They hadn't made profession. And while they saw a beauty in that continue thou, we don't want to continue in disobedience. We do not want to continue in a way that is not right or a way in which we will say, well, we want so much of the word and so many blessings, but we will lay aside other of the commandments of God. And so we must be very careful.

We think of those that may be completely unconcerned, that have no desire, no concern for their soul. What if they continue like that to the end of their lives? No change, no new birth. No new life at all. To continue in that way is a terrible thing.

And so when we have this word to continue, we must ask first, are we in the right way? Paul could know in saying this to Timothy that he was in the right way. He had been put in the right way. And so he could say this to him, continue thou. But if we were to say this to some people, we may have to really clarify it as to what we meant or what we wanted them to do. We wouldn't want them to continue in disobedience. We wouldn't want them to continue outside of the people of God. We wouldn't want them to continue in certain sins or in a lifestyle or way that they're walking in. We want there to be a change.

May this be a searching word to us each this morning. If it was said to us, continue thou, what are we continuing in? And are those things that if we were to come to a deathbed, come to the end of our life, that would be a terrible thing for us to have continued all of our life, absent from the Lord, ignorant of Him, not truly amongst His children, not fully following the Lord.

But Paul, he could say to Timothy, but continue thou. And then he says, in what, in what way? In the things which thou hast learned, which thou hast learned. Timothy had been taught, he says in verse 15, that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

It's a blessed thing to study the scriptures, to learn the scriptures, to hear them taught. Paul himself was brought up under the feet of Gamaliel. He knew the Old Testament very, very well, but that alone was not enough. He persecuted the people of God, He could not see the Lord Jesus Christ in those Old Testament scriptures until he himself was taught of God, until he was called, until he was given a new nature.

And so the Lord uses the means, never despised the real knowledge of the Word of God or the study of the Word of God, but know that it needs more than just that. And Paul goes on with Timothy that they were not only the things which thou has learned, but has been assured of. Assured of them. The Lord sealing them and making them to be known really by experience and in the heart and not just in the head. Timothy. And all of God's servants, all of God's people are to be assured of those truths that they receive, that it truly is the word of God. It is the truth of God. It is what we may lean our soul on for eternity.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself has set forth as the way, the truth and the life. He says to those that believe on him, If ye continue in my word, then ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But he says this, ye shall be my disciples indeed. A real disciple, a real follower is one that is continuing in the word of God. And this is the emphasis of Paul for Timothy here. Continue in the word of God. Continue in what you have been taught, what you have learned, and what you've been assured of. Put tried and proved over passages. Passages that have been burnt into your soul, like the man that had been born blind. One thing I know, or as I was blind, now I see. Truths that have been made so real that those passages in which they are, they stand apart in the Word of God because the Lord has actually taught them to us.

And so Paul then, he says this, has been assured of and knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Well in the first instance, He's referring to himself. He's not saying himself, but he has been the one that has taught Timothy as his son in the faith. God uses means. He uses those that are already taught to teach others and to instruct others in the way of the Lord. In another part of Timothy, Paul exhorts that, that he might teach men, godly men, that are able to teach others also.

Never despise the instruction and teaching and means that the Lord uses. We come to hear the word preached, we come to hear it explained, and the Lord uses that. Never think, well, I am not taught of God, because God has used means. I want it direct from heaven. I want the Holy Spirit to shine upon the word and to teach me from heaven. He will do that, but he will use means. He used that with the Bereans who heard Paul preach, and then in the week, they searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.

It was said to those Bereans that, therefore, many of them believed. But it wasn't just Paul then, was it? Knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Timothy also was taught of God. Many heard the apostles preach and were never taught of God. They never learned the things of God, they never obeyed, they never followed at all. But there were many that did. And so Paul is the means, but God is the teacher. And it's in those things that Timothy is to continue in. Not starting new things, not thinking, well, what shall I continue in or how shall I go on? He is to think back as what he's already learned and what he has been taught and shown. This is the path that Paul sets Timothy in.

I felt it is a very vital, is a very necessary exhortation. Is it an exhortation for us? It is a challenge to us? Have we begun? Have we got something right to continue in? And so I want to look secondly at the way it is being taught to all of God's children, not just Timothy, applies to them all. We have in the prophecy of Isaiah, that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. You have in Hebrews that they shall not teach every man his neighbor, saying they know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least unto the greatest.

All God's children, they are taught by God, the Holy Spirit, is the teacher and the instructor of the people of God. It's He that quickens them by grace, that gives them faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and faith of Jesus Christ that comes forth from Him, and that sets them in the way of his steps. He begins a good work in his people. And this is the main thought that I have here. There is a good work that is begun, a work of divine grace, a work of the Spirit. And as soon as that work begins, there is lessons being learned. Many of you might perhaps look over or not really realize that you did not know those things before. They are being shown and they're being opened up. You know, when a child first starts to go to school, right from the very start, or you might say as soon as a child is born, It's learning things all the time. It's adding to its knowledge. It's building up on what it has already learned. It's not casting away those first principles of knowing words or then being able to read or any other teaching. It relies on that teaching, what has been taught, to be carried on and built upon and learned. and continued in.

What would it be if, in a natural sense, a child was to erase each year of its schooling and start the next year afresh? He couldn't do it. It had to build on what it had been taught. And so with the Lord, with his people, he teaches them. We have line upon line, here a little and there a little. That is how they're taught. They're taught also by experience, by the things that God brings them into, brings them to feel, and brings them to know.

He'll teach them the fear of the Lord. Maybe we can remember the first time when, to us, God was real. We really knew him to be the living and true God. You know, there was a time with David when he was taught the fear of the Lord in a special way. Not the first time, you might say, while he had the Lord helping him as a shepherd. And he built on that. He remembered that when he went out against Goliath, the Lord his helper, his strength, his protector.

when they brought up the ark and the first time they copied the Philistines putting it on a cart and then Uzzah who put forth his hand to steady the ark as the oxen shook it he was killed and David feared the Lord. He sent the ark to the house of Obed-Edom but when the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom Then David brought up the ark, but he charged the Levites, he said, you do it the right way, not as if the first. They had to carry it on their shoulders, don't imitate the world, don't imitate the Philistines.

And David saw the two sides of the Lord, he saw how he could chasten and be severe, how he could bless. how there was a right way of carrying the ark which sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ, and a wrong way. And David learned that lesson, not just from the word of God, though it was taught there, but in actual experience, the way the Lord chastened him and corrected him.

And many of us have known similar instances. where the Lord has been to us a very real God and we've trembled. When the Lord has dealt with us, when the Lord has corrected us, when he's reproved us, when he's shown us the right way, when he's made us to know that he does see what we're doing, he does understand our heart, he does see the way that we are going.

The first time that the Lord Jesus Christ was set before us, certainly By nature, he's a root out of dry ground. But when did we begin first to see a beauty in Christ? When first did we seek after him and go after him and want to hear of him? When did we first utter his name in prayer and felt that we had to ask everything through his name in prayer? There's been a setting in the way of his steps, a teaching, and learning in the way.

What about separation from the world, the spirit of the world? Come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. When was the first time that was so? And the Lord bids us to continue in that, not to backslide, not to go back into the world, not to cease from following the Lord.

and it's in these things that the Lord will say to us this morning, continue thou when you first saw sin as it really was and you viewed it as ugly and an evil thing, continue thou in how you viewed that sin and remember that we can be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and cease from walking in that way. What about the path of prayer? Can we remember the first time the Lord sent us to pray? We may have been like the Apostle Paul. He was a Pharisee. They were known to pray much, but very different between just a formal prayer, maybe rightly taught by a parent to a child, how to pray, when to pray, before going to bed, but when the Lord first begins. What a difference when Prayer is squeezed out from the heart when we learn to ask for things that are really a burden to us and a real need, like the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner.

What about watchfulness? Has the Lord taught us the need to not only pray, but to watch in prayer, and to be mindful of an adversary, of our own wicked heart, the need of diligence in that way. These things the Lord teaches his children. They don't just happen. And he uses the ministry to teach them individual lessons in the school of Christ.

A distrust of our own heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Have we been taught that? been chastened because of it, or fell because of it, been deceived by it. And we look back to those times, remember those times, as the Lord warned us about particular sins, besetting sins, evil sins. He's marked us. He's corrected. He's warned us against walking in those sins. And at first, it may be we were very diligent and careful and fought against them, but gradually then our guard has slipped and we've backslidden.

I do want this word so that we think back. Think back to times of blessing in the house of God. Think back to maybe our bedrooms or closet or where we've been taught things, where the Lord has shown us something for the first time. And that has been not just with the idea of knowing at once, but actually to walk in it. Because that is the way we have in verse 17, following our text, that the man of God may be perfect or complete, throughly furnished unto all good works. It is to lead forth into fruitfulness, into actual works and things that are done. If that which God has taught us does not influence our life, it is of no worth. If it doesn't change the heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill, there is something wrong. And we need to continue in that way that the Lord has set us in.

You may think of ministers that have been used. We might think of texts that the Lord has given us. We might think of those lessons that we have learned years ago. Maybe this time is a good time to to meditate, to think of these things, and to remember them.

You may have come to the house of God thinking, well, I don't know anything of the things of God. I don't think the Lord has taught me anything. I don't know anything of his ways. But if we went back far enough, we went back to days of unregeneracy, when we knew nothing, or just by a letter, then to think, well, the Lord has taught us something. He has shown us things. He has given us an understanding.

Remember that was one of the great blessings the Lord gave to his disciples. Then opened he their understanding. This was what Philip with the eunuch, he came. Understandest thou what thou readest? How can I, except some man guide me? And under Philip's preaching, he preached unto him Jesus. He come to understand that passage. Never pass over that.

Where the Lord has used the ministry, he's opened our ear, he that hath an ear. You think of the Lord with the parables. Many of them did not understand those parables. The Lord opened to his disciples so that they could understand them. He that hath an ear, let him hear. Don't pass over the blessing. of having passages of the Word of God that through the ministry or through experience, through what we've been through, the Lord has caused us to understand that passage, understand the teaching, understand how it applies to our lives and what we should do.

We are not to just worship God how we want to. That is how the world today does it. just picks and chooses and worships God in the way that it wants to, and will allow any sort of God and any sort of religion. But the way of the scriptures is Jesus only, and it is His word only. No scripture is of any private interpretation. We're not to think, well, I'm going to interpret this verse as I want it to read. No, it's not a private interpretation. The writer of it, the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of it, it is God's Word. There's a specific message that He is giving through it. And for the people of God, it is to know what that message is. And for those in the ministry, it is for us to bring to the people, not what we think the Word of God says, but the message of God through the Word of God and that is why we seek to continue to compare scripture with scripture and to bring the Word of God before you.

We are to preach the Word and the Apostle says before Timothy here to continue in the will, in the Word of God. That is how he is to continue. Well I want to Look at this, a way that is to be continued in. The Prophet Micah in chapter 6, verse 8, we read, He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Immediately after that, it refers to chastening. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, the man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it. And so joined with this charge of being taught and being shown what is good It says before us what the Lord requires and what to walk in. We mention that verse in Psalm 85, and shall set us in the way of his steps.

And that flows lovely to John 10, where the Lord speaks of himself as the good shepherd. that he goes before his sheep when he putteth them forth he goeth before them and the sheep they follow him the sheep are put in the way of his steps paul takes this up in hebrews let us run the race that is set before us looking unto jesus it is looking unto the lord as our way The only way of salvation is through the precious shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to go forth as a people, not our own, but are bought with a price, glorifying the Lord in our body and in our spirit, which are His. There is none other way of deliverance from condemnation but through the Lord taking our law place, suffering in our place, working out a righteousness to give to us, and paying the debt that we owed. It is the way that is to be continued in, to know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to have set before us that aim to know only Christ as the way, and to follow after Him.

will turn away from Christ, turn away from the Lord only. But there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The Lord says, if you believe not that I am he, you shall perish in your sins. It is to abide in the vine, united to Christ, united to him and to his people. We think of what is said of Josiah, that godly King Josiah, only eight years old when he began to reign. And he comes and we are told this, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. and walked in all the way of David his father and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. What a witness there was of that young king walking in the ways of the Lord.

And yet what a contrast when we look at Solomon, because the Lord had that which he spoke against Solomon. We read in 1 Kings chapter 11, the Lord was angry with Solomon. Why was the Lord angry with Solomon? We read in the earlier part of that chapter how that he loved many strange women. together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in love." And we read that he even made gods for them, making high places for them.

You think, how can Solomon, such a wise king, do this? But we read this, because his heart was turned away from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.

There's several things here. You might say, well, Solomon had a long reign. The Lord only appeared unto him twice. The Lord doesn't need to appear unto us again and again and again to tell us the same thing. He expects when he shows us the way and tells us that we are to remember that, though it be forty years before, we are to continue in that way.

The two times the Lord appeared to him was when he first took the kingdom. Remember the Lord appeared to him in a dream, asked that thou, what I shall give thee, and he asked wisdom, and the Lord gave him wisdom. And the second time was at the dedication of the temple. And in that time, when the cloud filled the temple and he offered the long prayer, that the Lord appeared to him and said that he'd heard his prayer. The Lord appeared to him then. But the Lord didn't say, well, I need to appear to you every year. or every now and again, and assure you of these same things. He showed him once the way. He set him in the way that he should go. And he required that of him.

But Solomon didn't continue in that way. The Lord was angry with him. His heart, his heart was turned. And when his heart was turned, then his actions and what he did was turned away as well. And so this is the message to us, that we also are to continue. We're to think back. If you could say to Solomon, Solomon, you think back, think back to these times the Lord met with you. What did he say to you? What did he show you? What did he command you?

May we think back. and that those things that maybe we've forgotten or thought, well, that was years ago, I don't really need to be diligently walking in that way or being so careful. No. If the Lord has shown us once, may he bring us back to that as we begin another year, back to the time when he set us in his steps, back to the time he taught us, things that he's shown us, things inconsistent, like with Solomon, things that would turn his heart away, things that would be to his detriment. Are there things the Lord has reproved us and told us with over the years and said, this is not for the good of your soul. This is not for your peace. This is not a real help. You need to separate. You need to do different. You need to change what you're doing. This is the way, walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left. He that endureth unto the end shall be saved.

It's a blessed thing to continue, to continue by the grace of God walking in all of the ways of the Lord. But instead of looking, well, shall I do this and shall I do that? What shall this be my resolution of that? To be a looking back first. Looking at those things the Lord has already decided and already set us in as being the important things for us and of course us to continue in them.

The very context here especially is the Word of God. Have we let that slip? Do we not read it much? Do we don't study it much? Do we not pray over it? Do we not walk by it? Do we not obey it? Paul is very insistent that the Scriptures be so central. And that, of course, is vital for us. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Who to go forth in the footsteps of the flock and with the word of God as a light and as a lamp that is before us. A way to be continued in.

May the Holy Spirit shine and be the remembrance of this morning to show you, to show me the way that we particularly should walk and things that the Lord has reproved us or shown us or taught us. The Lord has not changed. We have changed. The Lord does not. And we are still to continue in those ways.

May be a word also, an encouragement to those who Feel ready to give up, disheartened, discouraged, feeling their faith so small, and their religion they fear is not real. May this also be a word of encouragement. But continue thou. Don't give up. Don't be disheartened. Be strengthened still to walk in the Lord's ways. To continue thou. in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.

May this be also a comfort, a realization. I have been taught, the Lord has shown me. I am not ignorant of the Lord's ways. May there be renewal in that way. a realisation he has set us in the way of his steps. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.