Second Timothy 2.24, and the
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all,
apt to teach, patient. In meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him
at his will. The servant of the Lord must
not strike. If it must not happen, then it
would be helpful for us to know how that happens. That's what
we're told in much of this chapter. One of the things that causes
strife is in the verse previous to where we began, foolish and
unlearned questions in verse 23. Foolish and unlearned questions
are always asked in order to discredit the Bible or the
preacher, the Lord himself. Our Lord was asked foolish and
unlearned questions by the Pharisees. A question asked honestly to
learn is not a foolish question. Our Lord was asked questions
like this. If a man marries more than one
woman in this world, say his wife dies and he remarries and
then she dies and he marries again, who's gonna be his wife
in heaven? You see the foolishness of that,
what difference does it make? What difference does that make?
It has no spiritual bearing on anything. The word of God concerns our
sins and how they can be put away. The Word of God teaches
sinners how a sinner can be saved by the grace of God through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God concerns Christ
and his work on the cross, his successful, victorious salvation
accomplished on the cross. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. It's what we're dealing with
here. And somebody asking, where did Cain get a wife, simply reveals
that they're not interested in Christ. To read this book and
get out of it foolish and unlearned questions is to miss Christ and
to have no interest in him. So-called smart people ask the
most foolish of questions. Questions regarding the order
in which God decreed things in eternity are among the most unlearned
of all questions. Eternity is eternity. Another thing identified in the
context that causes strife is in verse 16. Profane and vain
babblings. And this is not just two adjectives
describing the same thing. There are profane babblings.
There are babblings that are blasphemous and profane the name
of the Lord. And then there are babblings
that are just empty, that just have no meaning or value whatsoever. I'd say that making the shape
of the earth a gospel issue would be a vain babbling. if not profane. To make it a gospel issue, I'd
say it's profane and vain. If you're not preaching Christ,
let's just boil it down to what, if you're not preaching Christ,
you're babbling. Preaching about the devil. I
went to an assembly of some kind once, and they preached on the
devil and how to deal with the devil. Vain babbling. We're gonna talk about the devil
here in a minute in our text, but we're only mentioning him
as the Bible does in relation to the power of the truth of
Christ to set the captive free. That's what the Bible's about.
Not gonna do a series on how to deal with the devil. Preaching
regarding things that are not revealed in scripture. is to
babble vainly, and at times profanely, preaching heresy, such as God
loves everybody, commonly preached heresy, or Christ died for everybody,
or that the salvation of God's elect is up to you, profane and
vain. Another thing that to strive
about in our text, the third thing is this in verse 14, words. I want you to think about that
with me for a minute. To strive about words, this word or that
word. I wanna particularly call your
attention to this one this morning. I want to make a statement about
this that I hope that you can and will remember. God wrote
a book. He wrote an entire book, a whole
book, and it's not unclear in any way what the message of God
in this book is. From Genesis to Revelation, it's
Christ and Him crucified. All of it is the gospel concerning
God's son. Paul wrote in Romans 1, 1 and
2, that what the prophets wrote and spoke concerned the son of
God, Jesus Christ. If you have to make, now that
being the case, the Bible says one thing a lot of times. It's
a pretty good sized book. It'll take you a good while to
get through that. And it says the same thing over and over
and over again in different ways, from different perspectives.
It's like viewing the most magnificent jewel in the whole world. And
every angle you look at it, it just seems to get more beautiful. And that's the gospel of Christ
Jesus, our Lord. The good news that God saves
sinners and he does it, there's life for sinners and this life
is in his son. Now that being the case, this
whole book is about that. Now if you have to make your
religion, your gospel, your message, your beliefs come down to the
meaning of one single word in scripture, then you're completely
lost. The Bible is saying blatantly
and openly that Christ is all. Everything, all of it together
says that. Every part of it says that. And
if you look at the word is and have to figure out what is means,
you've missed the message of scripture. Don't strive about
words. You know that I like to often
look at the original meanings of words in scripture, the Greek
or the Hebrew words, they don't always translate perfectly or
fully into English. And we look at that sometimes.
But I tell you this, if all we had was the English Bible, you
reckon we could get the message of God from that? How would we miss it? I'll tell
you how we'd miss it. If we were blind as a bat, And
every one of us is by nature. God's got to turn the light on.
But it's not unclear. Paul said this thing wasn't done
in a corner. He said to King Agrippa, a heathen king, he said,
I know you believe what I'm saying. And so, you see what I mean by
focusing on a single word? When the whole Bible shouts,
Christ, come to Christ, bow to Christ. Christ is the successful
only savior of sinners. He's the only righteousness God
will accept. You must stand in him before
God or you're forever lost. And to look past all of that, and latch onto a word and say,
well, I don't know now. You're making it too complicated.
You're missing the forest for the trees. God has said one thing hundreds,
if not thousands of ways in his word. And are we going to get
caught up on the meaning of one word? We've missed it. We've missed
Christ. I like to use the illustration
of a burning building. Y'all have heard me use this
a bunch of times. Because in the book of Jude,
verse 23, it says, others save with fear, pulling them out of
the fire. It's a good picture to describe
our condition by nature. We're in urgent, immediate danger
of hell fire forever. And we have one need. We need for God to lay hold of
us and pull us out of the fire. So I like to use that illustration.
If I say to someone, get out of the building, it's on fire. And if they start saying, well,
what do you mean by out? Do you mean out in the yard or
do you mean out home or out? What do you mean out? You've
missed the point. Get out, the building's on fire. Save yourselves. That's why it
was said that way in the scripture, because it's so urgent. Save
yourselves from this perverse generation. Get out. Flee to Christ. Lay hold of him
as if your soul depended on it, because your soul depends on
it. Don't do that with the word of
God. You know what this Bible says.
You know what the message of God is. There's no pretending
you don't. Agrippa, I know you believe what
I'm saying. And if there's something you
don't know, ask of God. Ask of God, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not. The remedy for strifes about
words is in verse 15. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Find out what God said. How many
times did the Pharisees ask a stupid question? And again, a foolish
question is not asked to learn something. It's asked in order
to make a point. It's asked in order to disrupt.
It's asked in order to ridicule. And that's how they asked the
Lord these questions. You remember what, how often
did he say to them, haven't you read the Bible? You see the remedy? Study to show thyself approved
unto God, not men. Don't look through this book
trying to figure out ways to say what people want to hear.
Show yourself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to
be ashamed. You know what that says? You
say, well, man, I just feel so bad. I just don't, I don't know
the scripture like I ought to. Well, why not? You're not ever
gonna know it like you ought to, but quit apologizing and
study the book. Find out what God said. You see
what I'm saying about just making excuses. Well, yeah, I just don't,
you know, I don't have time to read the Bible. You don't have
time to find out what God said? That which is of eternal consequence? rightly dividing the word of
truth, having scripture shed light on scripture until you
know, until you see in the face of God's son, the very glory
of God in saving sinners, until the day star arise in your heart. Study the message of the whole
Bible, which is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rightly
dividing the word of truth is not dissecting words. Strifes
about words are vain and profane. In all of these ways and more,
People for whom Christ is not enough cause strife. And that's
what they all have in common. That's what all of these have
in common. If you've got to ask questions that are foolish, if
you ask questions that have nothing to do with the point, You know
what it boils down to? Christ is not enough. Either
because you've never seen him, even in your head, you don't
understand the magnitude of who he is, or you've been taught
the scriptures and you're just looking for some new thing all
the time. Christ is not enough. and we are exhorted negatively,
what to avoid? Don't strive. The servant of
God must not do it. He must not strive. And we're
told positively, on the positive side of that, Ephesians 4, one
through six, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. in the
bond of peace. We're told what not to do and
what to do regarding the same thing. One Lord, that's why. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one hope of your calling. Every one of us are saved by
the Lord Jesus. We have one hope. Let's worship
him together. and then be gentle unto all men.
People are trying to find out, trying to take a stance on superlapsarianism
or infralapsarianism or whatever. You know what God's word to us
is? Be gentle. You see what I'm talking about? The pursuit of God is not the pursuit of complicated
points of doctrine. If we find out who God is, we'll
quit being mean to each other. That's what I'm talking about. How do we miss it? How do we
miss it? Because we're blind as a bat without the grace of
God. Have you ever met somebody that
wanted to argue about doctrine or had some epiphany regarding
one meaning of one word in the scripture that changes everything
you ever knew about the gospel? Oh man, look at this, look at
this. You ever met anybody like that? Would you describe them
this way? Gentle. No, not in my experience. I find them to be harsh and scathing
and ugly, judgmental. The servant of God must not strive,
but be gentle, be gentle. Remember this, God will always
send you a pastor that loves you. If you find out that I don't
love you, then God didn't send me just as sure as I'm standing
here. I'll send you pastors after my
own heart. When you think about what God
has done, where his people meet in this world. God's messengers bring the message
of God for the same reason Christ did. God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. Paul might've been excused for
being angry at King Agrippa, for being arrested, for being
hauled in to give account for stuff he didn't even do. That
might make him mad. He might have reason to give
harsh words, but you know what he said? He said, King Agrippa,
I would to God that you were all together such as I am, except
these bonds. God, give us that heart. We beseech
sinners to be reconciled to God, not consign them to hell because
they don't know as much as we do. You know, our wandering as sheep,
that's such a beautiful picture, you know, a little sheep going
astray and all that. You know what our going astray is though?
It's spitting in God's face and shaking our fist in his face
and nailing him to a cross and mocking him while he bleeds out.
I know that our sin is ugly and wretched and vile and we deserve
eternal hell for it. But do you know how he speaks
to us? I'll gather the lambs with my
arm and I'll gently lead those that are with you. Apt to teach, not lecture, not
judge, not berate. Apt to teach, not prove wrong. Teach, not apt to scold, The scriptures are profitable
for reproof. The flesh is not. The flesh is not profitable for
that. If I ever preached to myself,
I'm doing it this morning. Apt to teach what? These are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of the
Savior. How to teach? Gently. beseeching, these are scriptural
words, long-suffering, considering thyself, kind, tenderhearted,
compassionately. How I need to heed this myself
instead of getting irate. And it's easy to get mad at people
for blaspheming God. You know, it makes me mad to
hear somebody say God loves everybody. Why in the world would that make
you mad, Chris? That's such a nice thing to say. No, that's not
a nice thing to say. But maybe we should reason with
sinners more gently. Don't you see, don't you see
how that saying God loves everybody means that God's love can't keep
a sinner out of hell? What kind of love is that? Don't
you see how it means that? If you say God loves everybody,
you're saying that he loved Simon and Judas exactly the same. Then
what does God's love have to do with salvation? Can't you
see that? That you're destroying the very
character of God Almighty? Would you keep your children
out of hell if you could? Well, God can. And he does. He says, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. To say God loved Judas as much
as Simon is to say his love has nothing to do with the salvation
of a sinner. And that's not complicated. Don't say God loves everybody. The Bible does not say that,
and it's heresy. Say as the scripture does that
God's love is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you're interested
in the love of God, you need his son. Come to Christ. God's love is
in Christ. Someone apt to teach will make
it just as simple as they possibly can. Paul said, see, we have
such hope. We use great plainness of speech. To be saved, you need perfect
righteousness before God. And you have no righteousness
before God. Christ himself is the righteousness
you need. You don't need a righteousness
like Christ's. There is no righteousness like
Christ's. You need him to be saved You need a mediator. You need
someone who can please God for you and you for God. You've got
to be reconciled unto God. And God is reconciled to his
people through the blood of his son. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. You need somebody to make you
okay with God and God okay with you. There's one. To be saved, you need a worthy
and acceptable to God sin offering. Sinners always have. Abel had
to have one. And it wasn't that lamb he slew.
He slew that lamb by faith in God's lamb. and you need God's lamb. Christ
is the propitiation for our sins. Romans 3.25, whom God had set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. I believe
that his blood can wash me clean before God. When God sends a
pastor after his own heart to teach, All that matters to him, I know
some of them. Let me tell you something today.
All that matters to that man is that you get it. He's not trying to impress you. The greatest compliment to a
preacher of the gospel is not that was an outstanding message
or that was the best message I've ever heard. The best compliment
to a preacher of the gospel is that was so clear. That was clear
as a bell. Oratory excellence is vain unless
I've taught somebody something. Apt to teach. Patient. Patient. We don't get people saved We
do what God's given us to do by his grace, and we wait on
God. We wait on God. Christ allowed
Paul to kick against the goads for a while, and he probably
did you too. Patient also means steadfast. We preach today, we preach next
Wednesday, we preach next Sunday, We preach next year, we preach
in season, we preach out of season, and we pray, and we preach, and
we believe, and we trust. Look at verse 25, you wanna know
what patience means? In meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, is God peradventure. We teach, we preach in order
to get people saved. No, we don't. We do it because
God just might do something for you. That's patience. And we're gonna keep doing it
until by his grace, if he doesn't let us go, we're gonna keep on
doing it until he does something for you. Can't let you go, Lord,
until you bless us. Can't do it. Can't do it. The problem with religion is
they preach trying to get men to do something for God, when
with men it's impossible. We preach hoping that God will
do something for sinners. Repentance is the gift of God.
You see that? In meekness, instructing, there
again, not scathing, not rebuking, not proving you wrong, not motivating
you with the law, teaching, teaching what God, what the Lord taught
us. Those that oppose themselves,
if God peradventure will give them repentance, that's the only
way you're going to get any. Esau sought for it and he didn't
find any. Judas didn't find any because
you ain't going to find it. God's got to give it to you. Faith is the gift of God, Ephesians
2, 8 and 9. God per adventure. You know what God per adventure
means? It means it's his prerogative. It's his prerogative. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. God peradventure means salvation
is according to his will, not yours. God peradventure means pray for
it with all your heart. God peradventure means, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. This is why we preach because
God peradventure. I don't know if God will save
those that I love who as yet do not know him. But if he does, I know how he'll
do it. Teaching, instruction. And so we instruct those that
oppose themselves. How are they opposing themselves?
by refusing and rejecting Christ. You've forsaken your own mercy.
And so what is our instruction? Come to Christ. Submit to Christ. Trust Christ. Trust Him. You know how you say come to
Christ? Religions always say, well, come
to Christ. Believe on the Lord. You believe on who? Come to who?
You know how you say come to Christ? By telling sinners who
he is and what he did for sinners like you. How urgent. How urgent it is. You see that last word, how urgent.
Those that we love are captives of Satan. at Satan's will. While bragging about their own
free will, sinners are in the grip of the devil himself and
he's having his way with them. And it's hard to watch, isn't
it? Is that urgent enough? The devil has hold of them. By
God's design and to the extent that God allows, But there they are. There they are. Captives of the devil himself. I see some that I love very much
twisting and writhing in the hellish grasp of Satan himself. And it's hard. But the message of scripture
concerning that is in Mark 9, 17 through 27. When that man
came to our Lord Jesus Christ and said, Lord, my son's possessed of a devil. And that thing gets a hold of
him and he cries out. Let's go over there and read
it, Mark 9. We'll close with this passage
of scripture in Mark 9, 17. One of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit, Wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and
he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And
I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and
they could not. And he answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him,
and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear him, And he fell
on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, how
long is it ago since this came unto him? Why you reckon the
Lord asked that question? And he said of a child, since
he was a little boy, the horror of that weighed upon that father. And oft times it hath cast him
into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said unto him, if thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. This father expresses unbelief,
doesn't he? If you can do anything, Our Lord
saw that before he ever said it, didn't he? He said, how shall
I bear you, faithless generation? If you can believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth in straightway. The father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
help. Help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him
and enter no more into him. I like that part, don't you? You're not coming back. And the
spirit cried and wren him sore and came out of him and he was
as one dead and so much that many said he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up. And he arose. That's our text. That's how the Lord Jesus Christ
saves sinners who are in the grasp of Satan, tearing them
and causing them to be in anguish and the horror of that. But the Lord Jesus Christ, as
that one man said, if you just speak the word only, Lord, my
servant will be healed. And he did. He has spoken his
word this morning. The Lord speaks the word and
sinners are saved. Wherever he pleases, he speaks
to hearts and the captive are set free. I pray this morning, if there's
anybody here that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, that he'd
set you free. If he will, he can. Believe on
the son of God. Believe on him. By his grace,
let's pray.