Spiritual vision, spiritual clarity, spiritual acuity belongs to those who go to the optometrist, in this case Dr. Jesus, and admit that they don't see as clearly as they ought to see.
And he'll fix you up. Before we begin, we want to let you know about an opportunity for you to visit the sites where the prophets and kings in the Bible heard from God. Skip and his wife Lenya are taking a group to Israel in 2022, and you're invited on the journey. Visit places like Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb. And that's just a quick look at the trip. Find out more about the trip at inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Now, let's dive into today's teaching.
We'll be in 2 Timothy chapter 4 as Skip Heitzig begins the study. How many of you have noticed or are noticing that your vision changes as you get older? When I say change, it gets worse, right? So you become farsighted and you have to hold things like really far away to be able to see. It's a condition called presbyopia. And it's because as we age, we lose elasticity in the lens of our eye, so we're unable to focus up close. Now, that's not the only eye condition, of course.
If you're like me, I had to get glasses at a pretty early age as a kid because my vision became impaired. And we have a standard that we set or doctors have set for what is called normal vision. It's called 20-20 vision. We've all heard that. What that means is that's what the average eye is able to read on an eye chart at 20 feet away.
That's normal. If you have worse vision than that, like 20-30 vision, what that means is if the average eye can read that chart at 30 feet, you have to get closer, 20 feet, to be able to read it. So vision can change.
If your vision with corrective lenses is 20-200 or worse, you're considered legally blind. Now what is true in the physical world is also true in the spiritual world. Spiritually, our vision can change. Perhaps once we saw things very clearly.
They were black and white. There were things that we commonly understood. But as time goes on, we change. Could be life experiences. Could be sin that enters our life that is undealt with, that produces a haze, a loss of sharpness. Lines become blurred.
We can even become blinded. That's what Peter meant in 2 Peter chapter 1 when he wrote to a young church, told them to add to their faith, to continue to grow. For he said, the more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or at least very short-sighted.
They've already forgotten that God cleansed them from their old life of sin. You may even recall that our Lord spoke to religious leaders who claimed to have 20-20 vision. They were so prideful, so boastful, they thought they saw everything clearly and nobody else did and Jesus called them blind. John chapter 9, Jesus said, I've come to bring sight to the blind and to show those who think that they can see that they are blind. The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, are you saying we are blind? If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty, Jesus replied. But you remain guilty because you claim that you can see. So here's the deal, spiritual vision, spiritual clarity, spiritual acuity belongs to those who go to the optometrist, in this case Dr. Jesus, and admit that they don't see as clearly as they ought to see.
And he'll fix you up. Whereas spiritual blindness is a metaphor for the unwillingness or the inability to see spiritual truth. That's what I want to talk about, spiritual truth. There is a crisis of truth today. People are cynical about truth. People as they age come to this place, sort of like Pontius Pilate, who stood before the truth himself, Jesus Christ, who spoke of the truth. And Pilate in a very cynical fashion said, what is truth?
I think even with this coronavirus pandemic, people are left scratching their heads trying to figure out, so which expert is right? And we've heard so many models and narratives and so many have been wrong and what we thought was the way it was isn't the way it really is. So what exactly do we believe?
What is the truth? So many contradictory messages. Here's a little video to illustrate that.
You may have seen this on social media. Yeah, I really don't understand why everybody isn't following the same rules right now. They're very clear. So let's take a minute.
Let's go over them again. First, you must not leave the house for any reason. Unless, of course, you have a reason and then you may leave the house.
All stores are closed except those that are open and all stores must close unless, of course, they need to stay open. This virus is deadly, but don't be afraid of it. It can only kill people who are vulnerable and also those who are not vulnerable. We should stay locked down until the virus stops infecting people. And it will only stop infecting people if enough of us get infected that we build immunity. So it is very important that we get infected and also do not get infected. You should not go to the doctor's office or the hospital unless you have to go there, unless, of course, you are too sick to go there. This virus has no effect on children except for those children in which it affects. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours or four hours or six hours, but in most cases it's days and not hours and it needs a damp environment.
We're a cold environment that is warm and dry in the air unless the air is plastic. Schools are closed, so you need to homeschool your children unless you can send them to school because you are not home. If you are at home, you can school your children using various portals and online classrooms unless you have poor internet, more than one child, only one computer or you are working from home.
Baking cakes can be considered math, science or art. If you are home educating, you can include household chores within their education curriculum. And if you are home educating, you may start drinking at approximately 10 a.m. every day. If you are not home educating children, you may also start drinking at approximately 10 a.m.
Masks are useless at protecting you against the virus, but you still need to wear one because it can save lives. And in some cases it may even be mandatory, but also maybe not. You must not go to work, but you can get another job at which point you may go to work. Stay home. I don't know how many more celebrities we need to have tell you how important it is to go outside and take care of your mental health. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket.
There are simply many things missing. You don't need to go buy a bunch of toilet paper, but you should buy some in case you need it. If you are sick, you may go out once you are better, but those in your household, they cannot go out once you are better unless, of course, they need to go out. Animals are not affected by the virus, except for that cat that tested positive in Belgium in February, plus a couple tigers. The number of corona-related deaths will be announced daily, but we don't know how many people are infected because we are only testing those who are almost dead to determine if that's what they will die of.
The people who die of corona who are not counted won't or will be counted, but maybe not. To help protect yourself during these times, you should be eating well and exercising, but exercising only eating what you have at home to avoid going to the stores unless you need toilet paper or a fence panel. It's important to get fresh air, but don't go to parks, but do go walk in other places. Just don't sit down unless you are old or pregnant, but if you do sit down, don't sit for too long unless you are old and you are pregnant, in which case you need to sit down.
But if you do sit down, don't eat unless you've had a long walk, which you are allowed to do if you are old or pregnant, except for times in which you aren't. Don't visit old people, but you have a moral obligation to take care of old people and bring them food and medicine. And finally, no businesses will go down due to coronavirus except those businesses that go down due to COVID-19. I hope this cleared up any questions about what we should and should not be doing during this time. Please educate your friends and family with this information so we can remove any and all confusion surrounding this time. Thank you.
There you are. So now we know exactly what we should be doing during this time, and you can understand why people like Pontius Pilate might look at this and go, what is the truth? Well, we are in 2 Timothy chapter 4, and let me just give you a brief thumbnail sketch of the background of this book. This is the final letter that Paul the Apostle ever wrote. You might see it as his last will and testament.
Certainly not his last words, but his last recorded words. They're written to young Timothy, his protege, the one he raised up in the faith and placed at the city of Ephesus. Largely, though there are themes in the book that are varied, largely he speaks about his worry over apostasy. That means a falling away from the truth, a departure from the truth because of deception. In both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, as well as other writings, Paul is concerned that people who once believed the truth could gradually become deceived because of false teachers that come in, because they become jaded over what is right and what is wrong, so he has a real concern about deception.
Somebody once said, and it's attributed typically to Mark Twain, that a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still lacing up her boots. Satan, from the very beginning, questioned God's truth. In the Garden of Eden, he said to Adam and Eve, has God indeed said? Did God really say what you think he said? How do you know that's the Word of God? How can you be sure that you are listening to the voice of God? And that's the same question that lingers today. Has God indeed said?
Most people, frankly, are not sure what God has indeed said. So, we felt it's time to get a refresher course on the foundations of biblical truth. This is an introductory message, 2 Timothy chapter 4. We're going to look at three steps to seeing truth clearly, three criteria for spiritual vision. They're simple. Be concerned, be cautious, be careful.
Easy, right? Be concerned, be cautious, be careful. Say that with me.
Be concerned, be cautious, be careful. Now let's see about what. What Paul tells Timothy in these verses is be concerned about knowing the truth. Look at how he frames it, verse 1. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. I want to string together a few words in these five verses. I want you to notice them with me.
They are all appositional terms. Let's look. Look at verse 2. Notice the phrase, the Word.
I'll get back to that in a minute. The Word, preach the Word. Also in verse 2, you'll notice the Word at the end of the verse, teaching. So connect that with the Word and teaching. Verse 3, notice the phrase, sound doctrine. Verse 4, look at the phrase, the truth. And then in verse 5, the very end of it, your ministry. The Word, teaching. Sound doctrine, the truth, your ministry. All those are appositional nouns, meaning they're all speaking about the same thing. There's just a little nuance with each word, a little bit of a twist. What Paul is basically saying in these five verses is your ministry, Timothy, is to teach people the Word, which is sound doctrine.
That sums up your calling. Now what does Paul mean when he says preach the Word? Well, we would understand that being New Testament Christians as the New Testament, the Old Testament, the whole Bible, the Scriptures. And we are accurate, but you need to see it in its context. Go back, if you don't mind, to chapter 3, verse 14.
Because we always want to look at every text in its context, and it's unmistakable as you read it. But you must continue, verse 14, in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Keep reading. We now get into our passage. I charge you, therefore, based on what I just said about the Scriptures, I'm charging you, therefore, Timothy, preach the Word. So the Word equals the Scriptures equals doctrine equals truth.
Truth. We are primarily people of the truth. We are those who follow, the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Daniel chapter 10 calls the Scripture the Scripture of truth, because the Scriptures tell us the truth about God, about us, about our condition, about our need. And truth is tied to the word doctrine.
He says the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Now that happens to be a word Paul liked a lot. He uses it a lot. Nineteen times in all of Paul's writings he uses that word didaskalia, the Greek word for doctrine.
It's a simple word that means teaching, teaching, or instruction. It's a good word. It's a word you shouldn't be afraid of, and yet it's a word I feel a lot of people are sort of afraid of. In fact, the word doctrine is one of those words I feel sorry for, if that's possible, to feel sorry for a word. It's sort of like somebody gets a name that's weird and you go, I feel sorry for that guy.
He has to have that name his whole life. Skip. Skip over him. Okay, so doctrine is a word I feel sorry for because I hear the conversations of well-intentioned believers who marginalized the idea of doctrine. Oh, I don't want to talk about doctrine.
It's so technical and potentially divisive. I'd rather just talk about Jesus, because it's just good and loving, but not doctrine. Listen, you wouldn't know who Jesus was were it not for doctrine. It means teaching. It's instruction about Jesus.
And I fear that many Christians treat scripture like they treat their operator's manual for their vehicle. You know it's there somewhere. Probably your glove compartment. I'm guessing most people keep it there. Most manufacturers put it there. But who really buys a car and goes home and reads the owner's manual? Oh, you might have one or two, but honestly, nobody reads that thing until something breaks.
If it goes wrong, we consult the owner's manual to find out what to do with it. My fear is that the manual of truth, this is the manufacturer's manual for how to do life, is overlooked by many Christ followers. Some are preaching that what you feel about the truth is more important than the truth itself. Your feelings are paramount. Not the truth, not objective truth, but subjective feelings about it.
That's a danger. The prophet Hosea in chapter 4 declared, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They're not destroyed for lack of love. They're not destroyed for lack of spirited singing. They're not destroyed for lack of emotion. They're destroyed for lack of knowledge. Acts chapter 2 verse 42 tells us what the priorities were of the early church.
They continued steadfastly in the number one on the list. Apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. 1 Timothy chapter 4, the apostle says, until I come, give attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. When he writes to Titus, another protégé of Paul's, he will say, teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. One of my favorite quotes regarding truth and scripture comes from the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice.
I'll put it up so you can see what he said. He said, we do not have a strong church today, nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound, spiritual knowledge. Ask the average Christian to talk about God. After getting past the expected answers, you will find that his God is a little God of vacillating sentiments. Close quote. See, in this case, in this case, ignorance is not bliss.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the Bible says. Ignorance is not a good position to take. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I had a friend who pastored a Bible teaching church at one time and decided to get away from teaching the scriptures and get into a whole different way of doing church. And he came to me one time and made this admission. He goes, I have to admit, sadly, my church has become biblically illiterate. They couldn't find their way around the Bible if they had to.
I haven't been teaching them the scripture. And it was a sorrowful conversation. It was a repenting conversation.
He knew he needed and wanted to change that. Four times Jesus said to leaders, have you not read? In other words, I'm holding you accountable to know where things are, to have a working knowledge, a reading ability of scripture. So be concerned about knowing the truth. That's the first step in seeing clearly. Getting 20-20 vision is to be concerned about knowing the truth. Second step is to be cautious about neglecting the truth. Verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
Fables. You know, our culture has rejected the truth. One of the reasons, and there are several reasons for it by the way, one of the reasons is journalism in our culture over time has become sensationalized. Every article has spin. There's an editorial thought behind it. There's an agenda behind it. Information isn't pure information. It's skewed information.
That's Skip Heiting with a message from the series 2020. Now, here's a resource that helps you dive even deeper into God's truths. There's a top 10 list for just about everything. But what about a top 10 list that can actually impact your faith?
Skip Heiting's top 10 messages will really make a mark. Here's a sample from what most people don't know about heaven. Somebody once said there are going to be at least three surprises in heaven. First of all, who's there that you thought would never make it?
Second, who's not there that you were sure would make it? And then number three, the fact that you yourself are there by God's grace. Here Skip teach on heaven, hell, and the end times and topics like the Holy Spirit and true happiness. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you Reload Love, Lenya Heitzig's book about the founding of a ministry that's been helping children victimized by terror for nearly two decades. Visit connectwithskip.com to give today and get Skip's top 10 messages on CD, plus your copy of Reload Love by Lenya Heitzig, or call 800-922-1888. Do you want to see people come into a relationship with the living God? The way to know Him is by knowing His Word. That's why we've made these life-changing Bible teachings available around the world, and you can help continue this broadcast and reach even more people with a generous gift today.
Your gift helps connect more listeners like you with the gospel. To give, just visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or you can call 800-922-1888.
800-922-1888. Thank you! Tomorrow, Skip Heitzig shares practical ways you can nourish spiritual truth in your daily life. Paul is saying, I've kept the truth, the faith, the gospel, the doctrine to the very end. I fulfilled and I finished the task. I've kept the faith. That's our calling. Our calling as a Christian church in this generation is to believe the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, pass the truth on to the next generation, and live the truth. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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