1105. How Do We finish Strong? Pt. 2

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today on The Daily Platform, evangelist Jeremy Frazier, a dynamic Bible preacher with an emphasis on revival and evangelism, will be continuing yesterday's sermon from 2 Timothy 3 titled, How Do We Finish Strong? To do it, he has this command to preach the Word. But what's interesting is this, is all true believers, in one sense, are called to preach the Word. But there are some of you where God will specifically place His hand on you, where vocationally you'll be a preacher. And maybe some of you, even in other circumstances right now, maybe there are some of you who honestly are battling against this. That was me.

I was battling against this because I'm like, how could you use me? And there may be some of you who may be even in a wrong major right now. That's what you're enrolled in, and that's not where you should be. In other words, God's called you to the ministry because when you consider our world today, now more than ever, there's a desperate need for the preaching of the Word. One clear sign of the judgment on a culture is when you start running out of preachers who preach the Word. So when I look at this, I would say you must be committed to, well, to preach the Word, and that's to Timothy, but you must also, in a sense, be committed to the Word. Be committed to the preaching of the Word, and that should be every true believer who longs to walk and live and love the Lord.

They are people who really long for the preaching of the Word. Notice what this says because it deals with our culture. Watch this closely. Verse 2, preach the Word.

Now notice he doesn't say this. Hey, Timothy, you've got some really, really good opinions. Preach the Word.

It's caruso. It's the idea of heralded out. That's why I kind of sometimes get loud in preaching even too. I mean, sometimes I'm talking to people, but I'm also not saying, hey, maybe kind of, sort of, if you kind of like would want to, maybe sort of give your life to Jesus, kind of, sort of, maybe. No, I'm saying, hey, Jesus is calling you to salvation, so repent and believe the Gospel. It's the declaring of the truth.

It's like the herald as he's declaring this, and notice what he says. Preach the Word. And we would call this, I would say within our realm, we call this expository preaching, don't we? Because we long for that kind of preaching. In other words, preacher, don't give me your opinion.

Give me what the Bible says. When I think about this, this is almost a rarity in our culture. You can get all kinds of preaching. I mean, you can get, you know, your best life now, and how to become a better you, and big smiles, and you're just a good person. Pass yourself on the back. You know, you can get that kind of preaching, but I think all of us realize it's disingenuous. It's missing something.

But I think about this as well, and I go, this is powerful stuff. Preach the Word. One semester after traveling, I remember being very, just exhausted. It was a spring time. We just finished off with a year, and then we transitioned to more of a summer kind of a ministry. The team's not with us in the summer, and so I remember one time we went to a church, and I'll just say it was in Wisconsin, and that's, I'll leave it there.

There's a lot of churches in Wisconsin, so it's kind of nice, but we just went really to visit. It was like Mother's Day, and we sat there and listened. The guy opened up, and he read the, he prayed.

That was good. He read the passage. Now, that was good, and then after that, I don't, we never went to the Bible again at all. I mean, you literally could have closed the Bible. The points were not anti-Bible. The points he gave were four or five points of how to be a good mother.

It was Mother's Day. Now, I would also say this, listen, you know, you can have bad days of preaching, and that happens, and so I'm not gonna fault the guy in that sense, but I was to the point where he could have given that same address, you could call it, to a community group for mothers at a community center. There was just, it just wasn't the Bible. And I remember as we pulled away, and I'm in the truck, and the kids were kind of talking in the back, and I looked at my wife, and I said, Misha, I said, this is exactly why I think some people are actually leaving the fundamental world, because where's the Bible? Where's the Bible?

But that same summer, as we kind of were working with one of the camps, and we worked with ten different ones that summer, they were having this, you know, this time where they're training the counselors, and this guy gets up in training, and it's an evening service, and it's supposed to be meant to really challenge the staff, and he talks about the number one book, the book that changed his life. And it wasn't the Bible. Now I guarantee if I would have pressed him, he would say, no, it's the Bible, that's the number one book. And the book he was saying was not a bad book, but it's like, here's the premise of the book, here are the points of the book, and his message consisted this way, he said, I believe this because number one, it's biblical, I believe this because number two, it's like practical, and number three, it's like helpful. And I'm thinking, that's a bad book report. And yet this guy would probably mock fundamental people.

And I thought, isn't that interesting? We live in a culture right now, where as you consider the true proclamation of the word, or expository preaching, where people are trying to draw out what does the Bible say, it's almost missing. And notice what he says here, he says, preach the word, be instant, in season, and out of season. Okay, that means that you're always ready, you're always on duty, you're ready to preach the word at all times. It's like, whether you feel like it or not, Timothy, preach the word.

Whether the listeners want to hear it or not. Doesn't matter, Timothy, give them the word. Now, I want to ask this question to each one of you here. Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning and not really felt like going to church?

Be honest. How many of you ever woken up on a Sunday morning and never really, didn't really feel like going to church? Would you raise your hand? Oh, Steve, oh. How many of you have ever not felt like going to chapel?

Yeah, that should be everybody, okay, in one sense, okay. But I would say this, chapel's kind of not an option, so it's a little bit, I won't pull in chapel, but I would say this. How many of you didn't feel like going to church, but you decided to go anyway? And as you went, God began to work in your heart, and you left church that day thanking the Lord.

Man, I am so glad I went, because God stirred my heart, and it was a helpful message for me today, and I almost didn't go. How many of you have never done that before? Yeah, that's like everybody.

And you consider this and go, this is the idea. It's not always convenient, and you're not always maybe wanting to do this, but the truth is, is we don't live on our feelings. We live by faith, we live by truth, and you know, the feelings follow that.

And so therefore, as I think about many of you here, you know, you've grown up, and like, you feel this way, well, you just don't kind of do it, and I'm saying, no, no, no. Actually, because the Bible's being preached, whether it's convenient or not to you, be committed to this, be committed to the hearing of this. Notice even further, because he tells them to be instant in season and out of season, he tells them to prove.

What does that mean? It means to convince or to prove one wrong. It deals with false doctrine. And as a preacher preaches, he must do this. He must reprove people. He actually must rebuke people. That's to correct them. That's correcting misbehavior.

It deals with the heart or maybe the root of the problem. I remember years ago, a preacher in Denver saying this to me. He said, you know what, I find it very, very difficult to find preachers that maybe even preach for youth that will even preach against sin. But you can never come to Christ if you never hear preaching on sin. Because what are you being saved from?

I mean, you consider this, and yet you look at this, it deals with this, but if it's only reproving and rebuking, then you're missing something, because it goes even further. He says, but exhort them. What does that mean?

It means to encourage. It comes from the Greek word parakaleo, the idea is to come alongside, even the idea of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside, and yet this is this exhortation that he does, and that's true preaching, because you maybe have seen the internet preaching. I've seen this before, where one guy's getting up there, and he's filleting his people. I mean, I'm like, whoa, and it's funny at first. You're like, oh, look at that guy, and he's like, and you, and you in the sound booth. He's preaching to everybody, and you, and you're like a loser. I've known you for a long time, and you're just going, oh, and you laugh at first until you realize, wait a second, this is actually a real church with a real pastor, and that's awful.

I hope that some of you maybe feel like, Jeremy, you're stomping on my toes, but I hope it's not all that way. I hope that you realize, wait a second, I'm saying these truths to encourage you, because you can walk with the Lord, because if you have this Spirit in you, you know what, he's begun that work in you, he'll bring it to completion. I look at that, I'm so encouraged that God is not through with me yet. Praise God. And you look at this, this encouragement that he tells you to do as a preacher to preach the word, and when I think about this more and more in our culture, you see this shifting away. Notice verse three closely, and as you do this, remember verse two, that you do this exhortation with all long suffering and doctrine. That's the idea of patiently putting up with people and keep giving them the doctrine. Aren't you thankful for faithful people in your life who kept giving you the truth? There were some times in traveling with Steve where, honestly, it was very difficult. It was the greatest time of my life, like the worst time of my life. And yet sometimes were the harsh, in a sense, not harsh, I would say the true confrontations that I needed.

And I struggled initially at times, but God used a faithful preacher to point me to truth and people who loved me to help me see things in my own spiritual life that truly needed to change. Those are your real friends. And he's saying patiently put up with people. And I think about that Steve, you put up with a lot of people too. And you know what it does?

It actually changes you. There's an element where God uses some of these men to really disciple you and help you, but yet actually even in turn as God's working through them, he's working in them too as well. When I look at this even further, he says, notice verse three, for the time will come. What is this saying?

There's gonna be a season or an epic. It will come. And it says this, it'll come when they will not endure sound doctrine. They don't want to hear sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, their own desires, their own sinful desires, they shall heap to themselves teachers.

They want a lot of teachers. They have itching ears. It's like a dog where you scratch its ears and you walk away from it and what does it do? It goes, and it walks towards you. And you scratch it some more. And it keeps following you around because it loves that. It's like people, here are people who always have an itch to hear something new. It's the new fad.

It's wow, I can't believe that. But honestly, so often if you've been a Christian for even a while, there isn't a lot of always new things. It's reminders of the old things and the things that we must do. But you consider this as you think about it. Here are people who just, they don't want to be committed anywhere. And that may be some of you. It's almost like, you know, you kind of try this and try this.

But where's the commitment level? But you look at this closely, notice what people will do. They have an itch to hear something new.

This way, verse four, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. They would rather hear a really good story. Wow, that was an amazing message. Really, what was amazing about it? Man, that story. It's like they had me in tears.

That was powerful. When's the last time you heard a person say, wow, what a powerful message because the Word of God just struck me to the core. I mean, you consider this, and this is our world, that when you think about this, you have people who don't want to hear sound doctrine. They don't want to have that.

They desire many teachers. They want to hear what pleases them. They would rather listen to even fables or good stories.

Hey, do a drama. And some of you buy into it and go, man, that's cool. That's sweet. Man, my church is cool. There were some mega churches literally saying this, well, we're not going to even meet until after the new year.

This is the summer. They had no clue what would happen. And honestly, those churches probably should have just closed their doors because many of them were not real churches who really give people the Word. And I wouldn't challenge you. This is a radical season.

This is a weird season. But be committed to the preaching of the Word. And as you leave here, I love that even over the past, I always would hear, listen, get out of Greenville.

I mean, the truth is there's needs here in Greenville, don't get me wrong, but get out. And let God use you all over the world. And there are people who've taken at the heart. And you look at this, and there are people committed to this.

Now I would ask this, are you committed to the Word of God? Because can I tell you this? As many people, they say this, Jeremy, people can't handle more than 20 minutes. I actually was preaching at a church, and I'm known as a long preacher. Okay, and I wish I could change that.

I try to all the time. But I was in a church, and it wasn't even a long message. For me, it wasn't. And this guy afterwards comes to me and says, Jeremy, he says, if you can't say what you're going to say in 30 minutes, then you basically need to sit down and be quiet. And I'm like, oh, like, you're serious, aren't you? He said, yep. And the reason I was saying that is because there were two men, grown men before him that came to me with tears in their eyes talking about what God's doing.

That's why I kind of thought it was a joke. Because the guy says, we can't say that. I said, wait a second.

You know, I said, I feel bad for the American culture. He said, what do you mean? Because we go to mission fields, and if you preach an hour, and you try to stop, they're going, what are you stopping for? He goes, oh, yeah, good one.

Like, what mission fields? So I started naming mission fields to him. And he's like, really?

And I said, sir, let me ask you a question. Do you actually ever watch sports? Could you imagine your favorite football teams playing?

And you even pay big time bucks to go to the stadium, and it's open. Okay, this is imaginary right now, just so you know. 30 minutes, I'm out of here.

No, they go into overtime, and you're like, yeah! You know what I'm saying? It's like, could you imagine saying that to a teacher at school? Hey, teacher, if you're not done what you're saying in 30 minutes, then you just sit down and shut up, you know. Like, that doesn't even kind of in a sense, I mean, maybe it crosses your mind, but you would never say that, you know what I mean.

Why are we so weak in this area? You know what really disturbed me after God got a hold of my life? I was now kind of hungering for the scripture, and what disturbed me is I would go to chapel, and as the preacher is kind of seemingly concluding, you hear everything being put away. I mean, like, you're going, if you're really listening to the message, you're kind of like, wow, everybody just turned off. God is speaking to you, and you're putting everything away.

Do you see what I mean? We live in a culture where we should hunger for more preaching. We should look, some of you, through your, I mean, there's so many ways now where you can hear even more preaching and listening to message.

Maybe instead of running and listening to music, maybe some of you should listen to some messages that stir your heart. God, speak to me. God, work in me. Do it even publicly.

Do it corporately. God, bless the preacher. Could you imagine that? What if you really prayed each day for chapel? Dear God, work in that preacher's heart. I don't know who it's going to be today, but work in their heart, and God, stir me, stir other people. It would transform the way you listen to chapel.

Chapel may become your favorite class, you know what I mean? But I look at this, and I say, here's a season where people don't want that, and so he challenges Timothy as he's kind of closing down. He says in verse five, but watch thou in all things.

What does that mean? It means to be alert. The idea is, again, is free from any kind of intoxicants or be sober, Timothy. Watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions. He's encouraging.

Timothy, the Christian life is tough. It's like you're a soldier. What do you expect? Could you imagine signing up, and you say, I want to go to the military, and they say, well, you start off, and you go to boot camp, and you go, ah, not me, not me. Just give me the gun.

I'm ready. It wouldn't work that way. You need the training. You need the discipline.

You need the experience. Paul tells Timothy, join in with me when it comes to suffering, because true people go through hard times. I remember even Tom Craig, my mentor and friend, you know, he said to me, I remember one time doing an interview for a class, because I'm studying for the ministry here. I did this interview with him, and one of the questions I just happened to ask him was this, what's one of your greatest fears? And he said, people greatly used of God, every person, to go through great trials. He says, I'm not really concerned as much about me, but I think about my wife, and I think about my three girls. Prophetic.

But you know what's amazing? As he passes away, God so worked in the lives of that family and just to see the blessing of God upon each one of them and how God helped them through what an awful and difficult situation and yet has richly, in a sense, blessed them as they've been faithful to the Lord. I remember him long ago. He gave me some marital, premarital advice. He said, Jeremy, when you marry, don't just marry anyone, but marry up.

You know, and I did. Praise God. And I would encourage you the same way. Marry someone who challenges you in your spiritual life, who walks with Jesus. Don't marry a ministry, ladies.

Please don't do that. You know what I mean? Where I'm like, man, that guy's a major loser.

Maybe I could help him. But you watch, though, in all things, you endure afflictions. You do. The work of an evangelist.

Man, I like that one. What is he saying? He's not saying go plant churches necessarily.

He's saying this. Go be evangelistic, Timothy. Try to reach people with the gospel. When you think about our culture right now, don't get sidetracked on all the political stuff or what's all happening. There are people dying and going to hell.

Today. What a reminder. Some of you have roommates who are on their way to hell. Wake up. Let God use you. Let God stir you. Do this work of an evangelist. Seek to reach the people with the gospel and deliver the gospel. Can I tell you one of the greatest things you'll ever do is get involved in some form of an evangelistic ministry or maybe start one, but that you are constantly seeking to share the gospel. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of your ministry.

What does that mean? The idea is to give full measure to or bring to completion. The idea of even in your work in ministry, he's saying, Timothy, go all out. This eagerness, this wholeheartedness. Don't hold back. Go all out for the ministry that God's called you. You know, I think about that. God doesn't call everyone to be a preacher in a sense of a vocational thing. Some of you as doctors or as sports medicine or whatever the field you're in. If God's called you that way, you are a Christian first and you seek to minister that way. Go all out for him.

Don't hold back. The other person who's going to make an impact is the person whose life matches the message. They love the Bible. They learn from the scriptures publicly and even privately. They long to be with the Lord and they consider standing before God in their spiritual life and one day they will get to see him face to face. They're thinking this way, but then it's a person who really longs and loves to obey the Bible and they live consistent with it by God's grace. Going back to the Lord and to the Word, this is the apostle Paul.

He leads by example. Verse 6, For I am now ready to be offered. What is he talking about? He's dealing with the very present time and he's saying, I'm ready to be poured out. The idea of offered is to be poured out as a drink offering. You know, in the scriptures, if you go your way to the Old Testament, I won't take you there, but the idea is it's found in Numbers chapter 15 verses 1 through 10. There's three kinds of offerings. There's the idea of the burnt offering, the death of the animal. There's the idea of the grain offering.

Or the first fruits or even of the labor. But then the final part of the offering, the drink offering, where then he is pouring out over that as a sweet smelling savor to the Lord. The apostle Paul saying, that's where I am. I have died, yes, with Christ. I've been like this burnt offering. I've given myself as the first fruits this way, but here I am now at the end of my life being poured out.

I'm a drink offering, ready to go. That's where he's living. He says, for my time of my departure is at hand. When I think about this, the word picture is dependent on the word. The word departure, the idea of loosing ropes of a ship so it can sail back. Think about World War II.

I know none of us lived back then, okay, but we know the history. The idea is that World War II, what happened after the war was over and we win, the military win. What do they do? They're getting in ships and on planes. The anchor's being pulled up. They're loosening the ropes and they are going home.

That's Paul. I'm going home. Verse 7, I have fought a good fight. It's a fight.

I have finished my course. It's like a race run, a long, long race and yet he's finished his course. I have kept the faith, the one true faith. He has guarded it to the very, very end and so that's what he's saying initially in the present, verse 6, but then you have in the past, verse 7, and then you have in the future and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to be only, but to all of them also that love is appearing. Paul is speaking of the future and saying this is laid up for me, this crown of righteousness.

Now, some have preached this. It's almost like, you know, hey, you get this crown. It's on your head. You know, it's a crown of righteousness and, you know, you get all these different crowns and ultimately you throw the crowns at the feet of Jesus.

But this doesn't seem to be that way. Those of you who do study the Greek, the idea is it's like a genitive of apposition. The idea is it's a crown which is righteousness. The reward is righteousness. Full righteousness. And this too could be for any true, but don't get me wrong, there are rewards to get, but this reward is like the idea for a true believer that he finally goes to glory and experiences the very righteousness of Christ. One man interviewing a saint of the past was talking to him in the midst of this conversation. He started pounding the saint that he was saying, and he says, I hate sin.

I hate it. And I long for the day. Fully delivered. Justification declared righteous. Sanctification. God is making you more holy and making you more like Christ, and that's an ongoing process. But praise God, one day when we die as true believers, there's something called glorification, where now you get the new resurrected body and you're fully freed from the very presence of sin. And all God's people say, amen. God's people say that. But phony believers don't. And you look at this and you go, this is interesting, and it's to all of them also that love has appearing. This is to any true believer. And who loves and longs for the appearing of Jesus?

True believers. Years ago, on a mission trip, and actually at 07, we went to Italy and we saw the Colosseum and we're like, man, that's awesome. And it was like a special day. We kind of took one into town and, well, that's cool. You know, and we're seeing all these different things. You know, we're all excited about, you know, America, Boston, you know, it's like 200 years old, you know, and then you've got like the Colosseum.

These are like thousands of years old, you know, and you're like, it's just kind of wow. But the most moving thing for me was to go to this prison. Historically, it's the last place where the Apostle Paul would have spent his time. It was a cistern. It was a place, in many ways, if you go there, like now you walk down these steps and you make your way into this cistern, and it's not a very big area, you know, at all.

It's like, but you're in this, it's kind of like a cave-like thing. Back then, there was no steps to walk down. Actually, you can see it today, there's a hole in the ceiling, and that's where they would lower the prisoner, and it was waiting for a place of execution. He was, you could say, death row.

That's where he was. That's where he would have historically spent his last days, as they would have lowered him down in there. Honestly, there were times historically where that prison would get too full, and they're waiting execution, and so sometimes they would just pull a lever, and the lever would actually flood the cistern with sewage from the city. They would drown all of these people waiting to die for capital punishment in that sense. They would drown them in sewage, and then pull another lever, and pull out the sewage, and pull out bodies. But historically, the Apostle Paul would have been there, and you could imagine the day where now all of a sudden they call him up. They lower the rope, and he's raised up out of that, and he's going to his place of execution. Now the Apostle Paul, being a Roman citizen, could not be executed as a, you know, on a cross, and so what would they do historically?

They would kill you, and usually it was by severing your head. And so now here he is, making his way from being pulled up to the place of the chopping block where he would die, where he would be poured out, literally, as a drink offering. He said, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Could you imagine, in just moments, I will be with the Lord, absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They probably looked at him as the most crazy man ever, as he walks with probably the greatest smile on his face, knowing in just moments, I am going to be with Jesus. Now you have that executioner who then severs his head, and again, absent from the body, boom, present with the Lord.

He finished his course. He kept the faith. When I think about this, I want to challenge you. Don't just try to make it, but by God's grace, abound in your spiritual life. Get serious about this. Be committed to the word personally, and I'll tell you this, you will see God work in you, and praise God, you will see him work through you. Thanks for listening, and join us again next week for another sermon from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.