Timothy chapter 4. Second Timothy chapter 4, Paul is writing this letter to
Timothy from one preacher to another preacher. Timothy was
the pastor of Ephesus and all of Paul's exhortations to Timothy
here are in some form concerning preaching. The whole letter is
concerning preaching. And for all those who have been
called on to preach, it's important that we pay close attention to
what's being said right here. This is all concerning preaching. But with that being said, this
is not just a word from one preacher to another preacher. This is
a word from God to his people. Every word in this book is a
word from God to his people. This word right here was not
inspired by Paul, it was inspired by God Almighty. And for every
child of God who lives by the preaching of the word, every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, it's important
that all of us, we pay very close attention to what's being said
here. Verse five will be our text. Let's begin reading in
verse one. Paul said, I charge thee therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
and the dead, the living and the dead, at his appearing and
his kingdom, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering, and
doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall
they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
unto fables. Verse five, he said, but watch
thou in all things. endure afflictions, do the work
of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Watch thou in
all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. Make full proof of means fulfill,
that's what it means. Fulfill all the duties that are
required of you in the ministry. He listed three of them right
there. Watch in all things, endure afflictions, and do the work
of an evangelist. Now I spent the second half of
Thursday thinking about those three things. Just, I mean, from
about noon on, just really thinking about those three things. Trying
to think about what they were saying, what I should say about
them. And Friday morning I was talking
to my dad and he was telling me about something that he was
looking at and dwelling on. And that was the importance of
prayer. That's what he was studying. He was looking at a passage from
Mark chapter one where the Lord went off beside himself and prayed. And he said that it struck him
that if the Lord put that much emphasis and importance on prayer,
how much more should we? If the Lord did that, how much
more should we do that? And when he said that, I thought,
that is what 2 Timothy 4 verse 5 is all about. That's what it's
all about. Paul said, Timothy, be watchful. How do we do that? In prayer. Really, in prayer. He said, Timothy, endure afflictions. Endure afflictions. How do we do that? Really, how
do we do that? How do we endure afflictions? In prayer. I mean, really. In prayer. Really, that's the
only way, in prayer. And he said, do the work of an
evangelist. You got men running all over
the place, doing all kinds of things. How do we really, actually,
truly do the work of an evangelist? In prayer to God. in prayer to
God. Now let me just expound on each
one of those things for a minute. Turn with me over to Mark chapter
1. This is the scripture that my dad was looking at, told me
about, Mark 1. Verse 32, it says, and that even when the
sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased and
them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was
gathered together at the door and he healed many that were
sick of divers diseases. and cast out many devils and
suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him. And in
the morning, rising up a great while before day." I'm fascinated
by the thought of him sleeping. I don't know why, I got to really
just thinking about those hours while he was sleeping. God does
not sleep. He will not slumber. But a man
did, and that man is God, and that is God. I don't understand that. And
that's why I'm fascinated by it. But verse 35 says, in the
morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed
into a solitary place and there prayed. And Simon and they that
were with him followed after him. And when they had found
him, they said unto him, all men seek for thee. And when you look that up in
a concordance, that means in a good way and in a bad way. Some wanted to worship him. Some
wanted to kill him. Some plotted against him. Verse 38, and he said unto them,
let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also,
for therefore came I forth. Right there is the example of
being watchful, enduring afflictions, and doing the work of an evangelist. And if we as followers of Christ
are gonna do that, it's only gonna be by looking to him in
prayer. We're all gonna find that that's
so. We're all gonna find that out to be so. He prayed. He was watchful. He himself endured
afflictions. And he preached. Turn over to
Luke 22. Luke 22 verse 31, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you
as wheat, but I have prayed for thee. What he's saying is, I
have been watchful for you. That's the good news. I've been
watchful for you. I have watched, oh, Satan has
desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I've watched
over you in prayer. Verse 32, that thy faith fail
not. He said, Peter, I have prayed
for your ability to endure this affliction. This is going to
be an affliction. That's what he's telling him.
This is going to be an affliction. You are going to endure an affliction. But I've prayed for you that
your faith fail not. That you'll be able to endure
it. And he said in verse 32, when
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. You go out and
do the work of an evangelist. The foundation of every bit of
that was the Lord said, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. That affliction that Peter endured
was he denied the Lord. That was the affliction. Three
times he said, I don't know the man. I have nothing to do with
that man. I hate and I curse that man. Thanks be to God, the Lord prayed
for him. That's all we can say about us.
Thanks be to God. In John 17, he said, Father,
I've prayed for them. Aren't you so glad the Lord prays
for you? You know, you say to people,
y'all be praying for me. If Jesus Christ is doing it,
you're good. He prays for us. The Spirit makes
intercession with groanings that we could never utter. That's
so comforting to me. The Lord prayed for Peter, he
was watchful for Peter, he brought Peter through that affliction.
And when it was over, you know what Peter did? He strengthened
his brethren. That's what he did, he strengthened
his brethren. Turn over to 1 Peter 5. Verse Peter 5 verse 5. Likewise ye younger submit yourselves
unto the elder, yea all of you be subject one to another and
be clothed with humility for God resists the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting
all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be
vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh
about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the
faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. Verse eight, he said, watch,
be sober, be vigilant. Verse nine, he said, endure,
resist, Steadfast in the faith, that means look into Christ,
look to Christ. How do we endure? Look into Christ. In verse 10,
he did the work of an evangelist. He said, the God of all grace
who's called us to eternal glory by Jesus Christ, he'll do the
work. As a pastor, I need to be watchful
over you, praying for you. I'm gonna, I don't, At some point,
I'm gonna get candid with you, okay? Either now or in a minute. It's in my notes. Get candid. As a pastor, I need to be watchful
for you in prayer. But I need for you to be watchful
for me in prayer. I'm no different. I am no different
and we need to be watchful for each other in prayer, we need
to be revived in prayer. God forbid that we should sin
against the Lord in ceasing to pray for each other, that's what
Samuel said in 1 Samuel 12. We need to pray for each other.
Peter said, after he went through everything he did, he said, none
of us need to fool ourselves into thinking that we cannot
fall. None of us. We need to be begging
God constantly to keep us. Well, aren't they going to be
kept by the power of God? Yes, through faith. You know, that's keeping your
eyes on Christ. You know what we constantly do? We turn our
eyes to other things. We need to constantly beg the
Lord, keep us, keep us. That's the evidence that we're
being kept by the power of God. Paul, again, he was talking to
Timothy in our text about preaching. We need to beg God to keep our
message on Christ. You know what the flesh says?
What about something else? Isn't it time for something else? Verse 8 right here, Peter said,
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. He
devours by slipping in distractions from Christ. That's what it is,
distractions from Christ. Yeah, well, what about this?
Don't you think we need to be talking about this? Don't you think we
need to be hounding this? Distractions, hair-splitting
distractions. Lord, keep us looking to Christ.
Keep us looking to the cross of Christ. Keep us looking to
the blood in times of prosperity and in times of affliction. From
a preaching point of view, if everything's going well here,
I need to be preaching Christ. And if everything is falling
apart here, I need to be preaching Christ. That's what we need to
be doing. Christ is the one thing needful. His salvation, his blood, his
cross, it's the one thing needful. Christ is our defense. Christ
is our comfort. Christ is our encouragement. And as Peter said right here
in verse seven, we need to cast all our care on him in prayer. That's what we need to do. What's
the answer to this? Cast your all on him in prayer. Asking, communicating. Ask him, talk to him. If I could
say it that way, we need to talk to him. We need to talk to him. Turn back three pages or so to
James chapter four. James 4 verse 1 says, From whence
come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even
of your lusts that war in your members? You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and
cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have
not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because
you ask amiss. How often are our prayers lip
service? Well, we're about to eat, we
gotta pray first. I'm about to preach, I'm supposed
to pray first. How often? How often? Look at verse eight. Draw nigh
to God. There are times when you know
in your soul you're drawing nigh to God. You need God. And you
know everything else has been cut away and this is me and God. Draw nigh to God. He will draw
nigh to you. That's a promise. He will draw
nigh to you. Brethren, in prayer, let's be
watchful over this ministry. The ministry of God is the people
of God. I know we think it's the church
and I know that we think it's the people of God. This is the
ministry of God. We are the ministry. We are the ministry. If we're
going to be watchful over the ministry, we need to be watchful
over the people. of the ministry. And when a ministry
first starts out, when a ministry first is assembled and first
starts out, everything is new and everybody's excited about
it and everybody's happy. And as time goes on, if we're
not careful and if we're not watchful and if we're not concerned,
a root of bitterness will set in. to whatever, to the habit
of what we do, to each other, bitterness between God's people.
You know, at first everybody's just so happy and everybody just
loves each other and hugs each other. And then come to find out we
really are sinners. Oh yeah, wait a minute, we actually
are sinners. I forgot about that. And you have now offended me.
and I have offended you. Other than the message veering
away from Jesus Christ crucified, that is the saddest thing that
can happen to a ministry. That is the saddest thing. Where true, true love for Christ
is and true love for the people of Christ is, that's the greatest
blessing that a believer could ever enjoy on this earth. Being
in a place where the true, sincere love of Christ is, that's the
greatest blessing we can know on this earth. Let's cry out to God to give
that to this ministry and to keep that in this ministry. Lord, we need it so badly. If
any afflictions have come, one from another, let's call on our
Lord, asking him to give us a patient heart a patient heart to endure it. Let's be watchful by calling
on him and asking him to give us an enduring heart to love
through it. For the sake of the gospel, for
the sake of the message, for the sake of the ministry of Christ.
And then after we do that, let's sincerely desire that for other
congregations of God's people. Let's desire that for others.
Let's have a heart of love and concern for God's people everywhere,
everywhere. Look back at 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy
4 verse 5 says, But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry. It is critical that we support
the message of the gospel, the preaching of Christ, not only
here, but anywhere that the Lord would be pleased to send it. You're reading it right there
with me. It is my God-commanded responsibility
to be a pastor here, just like Timothy was to Ephesus, and just
like Timothy, to do the work of an evangelist. It is my God-commanded
responsibility. Wherever the Lord would open
a door, I remember Brother Henry told me, so many times, don't
ever turn down an opportunity to go preach somewhere. Now I've
turned down many opportunities to go preach. I turn them down
all the time to places, Brother Donnie will call me, can you
come? I can't, I've already been gone too many times this month.
I can't leave my pulpit again. One man will call me, can you
come preach in our conference? I can't, I'm already preaching
in another conference. I turn that down all the time.
But what he's saying is, if it's a place where you don't know
if you should go preach there or not. You know, if somebody
calls you, we want you to come here and preach for us. If false
religion calls you and says, would you come preach for us?
Go preach for them. There's a new group over here
who's heard something on the internet and they need somebody
to go preach for them. Go preach for them. Go preach for them. These men who the Lord has called
on to preach here, they bring the word of the Lord here. Brother
Luke is in Danville this week. He's going to be in Georgia next
week. They do that. It's our responsibility. It's our privilege, but it's
our responsibility. To whom much is given, much is
required. And much has been given to us. Much has been given to us. We
are so blessed. We're just so blessed. And God's
ministry is so much bigger than us. I think that's the point
I want us to really get out of this. God's ministry is so much
bigger than us. There are some years that I have
to travel more than other years. It's like everybody, it's a cycle,
you know, one year everybody's calling that man to speak at
their conference, and then you spoke there and then you don't
get called, you know. Some years I travel more than
other years. Some times of the year, you know,
you got the spring and the fall especially, there are some times
of the year that I have to be gone more than other times of
the year. I do very much guard how much
I'm gone. And I need to do that. It would be much easier for me
to just not go anywhere. Not only from a just like an
effort and a tiredness point of view, but I am most comfortable
preaching in this pulpit. I don't get this candid anywhere. And the reason I'm telling you
all this is because I want all of you to know that I miss you
when I'm gone. There's some times that I have
to go so much. When I went to Africa, that was
15 days. That really weighed heavy on
me. That was two Sundays in a row. I feel guilty about it. I don't want to be away from
you. That's what I really want you to know. Some of you have
told me you don't want me going anywhere. You just want me to
stay right here. That warms my heart. I hope that
never changes. Isn't it about time for you to
go somewhere again? Couldn't we get a guest speaker?
I hope that never changes. God's ministry, though, is bigger
than our four walls, isn't it? It's just bigger. And as one
man said it, we are on the hunt for God's sheep. Our brethren, wherever they may
be, God is going to call them. God is the one who's going to
go get his sheep. God is the one who's going to
seek and save and find his sheep, but he's going to do it through
his preachers bringing the gospel to him. And that's the commission he's
given to all of us, all of us as servants and supporters of
his ministry. He said, you go into all the
world and preach the gospel. What a blessing. He said, I want
you to go out and find the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
our brothers and sisters who must be called into his fold.
So it's critical that we call on our Lord in prayer, asking
him to give us a heart of concern for this ministry, a heart to
watch for and a heart to care for this ministry. But it's also
critical that we ask the Lord to give us a heart to be generous
with the gospel. We want the gospel here, but
may the Lord give us a heart to be generous with the gospel
we've been given. Lord, give us the heart of evangelism,
the heart that wants to spread it out. We're not going to be
here forever. Let me just tell you that, okay?
You have these men throughout the ages that have preached and
some of them the Lord called home at very young ages. One
man who the Lord used mightily, the Lord called him home in his
20s and Spurgeon in his 50s and I don't compare myself to those
men. I'm just saying don't get too comfortable with me. The
Lord is going to take me as soon as he's ready, as soon as he's
done with me, he's gonna take me. And the gospel will go on. It'll
go on. This ministry will not be here
forever. You know, the Lord, I hope he
keeps the gospel here. I hope he'll, after he does call
me, I pray he'll raise up another man to preach the gospel, but
he might not. And it may not be that the gospel
is truly preached in Kingsport ever again. It may be the case,
but the gospel will keep going. And he's going to use his people
to send it wherever he wants to go. He'll raise it up here
for a little while, and he'll send it there for a little while,
and he'll do what he's going to do until he's done doing it. I pray the Lord will give us
a heart to be a part of what he's doing. Verse five, watch
thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. Amen. You're dismissed.