The world is as complicated today as it was when the Apostle Paul helped establish the early church, and yet his instruction to his protege Timothy was very simple. Preach the word. Alastair Begg examines Paul's simple, solemn, and strategic charge in another popular message from Truth for Life's Encore 2025 series. 2 Timothy 4:1. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.
who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. reprove, rebuke, and exhort. with complete patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching.
But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth. and wander off into myths. As for you, Always Be sober-minded. endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist.
Fulfil your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
Henceforth, There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all. who have loved his appearing. Amen.
Well, this final charge that is given by Paul here at the end of his second letter is actually unlike the charges that he gives in his first letter. Inasmuch as most of those charges have a very specific objective in mind. But when he comes now to the end, and it is essentially the end, he is saying to Timothy. This is what I need you to understand, to believe, and to hold to. for the rest of your life and for the rest of your ministry.
And in every realistic sense, it is the word of a spiritual father to a spiritual son in the Gospel to encourage him to stay on track. He's essentially saying, I want you, Timothy, to make sure that you fulfill your ministry, that you run all the way through the tape. that you don't lie down in the grass, that you don't throw in the towel. but that you sustain your journey right to the end. And the first five verses actually encapsulate Paul's concern in this way.
Three obvious observations concerning this charge. First of all, you will notice that it is solemn. It is solemn. I charge you. In the presence of God the Father and of Christ Jesus.
who is to judge the living and the dead. Timothy, as a young man in the ministry, was responsible for those who were under his care in Ephesus. He would have had colleagues around him who were important to him, from whom he was learning, and who were also being. the beneficiaries of his instruction. It is important for Timothy to understand that ultimately his accountability is to God himself.
That he's not ultimately accountable to his congregation in Ephesus. As a leader in the church in Ephesus, he is keeping watch over the souls of those who are under his care. And as a result of that, he will give an account. The writer to the Hebrews makes that clear in chapter 13, encouraging the congregation to make sure that their approach to the leadership in their churches is the right one. They keep watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
Give an account to whom? We don't give an account to Mrs. Jenkins or to the local trustees or to whoever else it is. We're accountable to one another in the body of Christ. I charge you.
Solemnly. in light of God The Father. and the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has come, He stands forward, the kingdom of God is at hand, the time is fulfilled. Repent and believe the good news.
The progress of the kingdom of God continues throughout all generations as the gospel is proclaimed. Timothy is taking up his part in that. And Paul is reminding him. that what you're doing is kingdom business. You have been entrusted with this privilege and this responsibility.
One day, that kingdom will be apparent universally and openly. But in the interim Timothy. I charge you. In light of this, This is a solemn Charge. In the old days, whenever those were.
Signs in church buildings, at least outside of church buildings in Britain, and I'm not sure if it's still the same. Would announce who the vicar was, or the minister, the pastor, and what was going on. And usually at the bottom, it would say something along these lines that Reverend Peabody. is available For the solemnization of marriage. the solemnization of marriage.
Oh, you mean that this is solemn? When you get married? Yes, it is not to be entered upon lightly or carelessly. But thoughtfully, with reverence for God, with due consideration of the purposes for which it was established by God. In the same way, entrusted with the privilege of gospel ministry, it's not to be entered upon lightly or carelessly, but thoughtfully.
With reverence for God the Father. And in light of the kingdom and the appearing, Of the Lord Jesus. You remember in Hamlet when Hamlet and Horatio come on the gravedigger scene? Mm. And the the gravediggers are clowning around and they're and they're singing.
And Hamlet says to Horatio, Has this fellow no feeling of his business? that he sings at gravedigging. And Horatio replies, Custom. hath made it in him a property of easiness. In other words, He's so used to it now.
That he's no longer saddened by it. He's no longer moved by it. There's really very little to it at all. The day that that begins to dawn in the heart of a pastor is dark. Big D Danger Day.
Solemn. Secondly, simple. Simple in the sense that it is simple to understand. It is straightforward. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, here we go, preach the word.
Preach the word. All that Paul has already written in this letter concerning the pattern of sound teaching in chapter 1. uh the importance of looking after the good deposit. In uh Chapter 1 as well. All of that underpins the charge which he now gives in relationship to the scriptures.
It's very, very important that we keep in mind that the responsibility that is given to us is a responsibility to be a servant of the Word. uh mate and on one occasion Gresham Machin says to us all, it is with the open Bible that the real Christian preacher comes before his congregation. He does not come to present his own opinions. He does not come to present the results of his researches into the phenomena of religion. But he comes to set forward what is contained in the word of God.
Preach the word, Timothy. Teach the Old Testament scriptures. Teach now what you are learning from me as one of the apostles. I wonder if this is just so routine to us that it's possible for us even to miss it. We search for metaphors to drive at home, pictures in mind.
If you've had the privilege of seeing a proper pipe band play in Scotland, preferably in the Highlands, maybe in Doroch if you went to play golf, and you had that amazing experience on the Friday evening when out they came into the middle of the town and marched. all those snare drums and all those bagpipes, and then the fellow that I feel most sorry for that has that huge big drum that he has to ca carry in front of him. He presumably is very good friends with a local chiropractor or something like that. But he has that big jolly drum and he just hits it. And you will notice that when all the other instrumentation stops, That bass drum is the key.
Because it is the constant rhythm of that drum. that keeps the time of the march through the square. In a very realistic sense, The unfolding of the text of Scripture from the pulpit Sunday by Sunday. is essentially the bass drum. It's not on its own.
It's surrounded by everything else that is necessary and purposeful. But if all that were to silence, Still the drum Continues. Preach the word. ready in season and out of season. Press the message home on all occasions, convenient or inconvenient.
When It's a season of receptivity. Or when it's a series of uh Hostility. When the prospect fills you with dread? On a Saturday evening, or whether it fills you with delight. on a Saturday evening.
When your listeners are tuned in, or where you're when your listeners are tuned out. when the crowds are dwindling. or the crowds are growing. Preach. Yeah.
It's a challenge, isn't it? Because after all, it's so Heart. It's right that preaching should humble us. It's wrong that it should paralyze us. And part of the challenge is the context in which Timothy was going to be ministering, as we'll see in a moment or two.
But for us, it's the same. You talk to people about preaching today, even in local churches, and some of them are surprised that you really have any emphasis on it at all. We recently had a couple move away from here, and they went off to another part of the nation, a lovely place to go. And after some months, I had a note from them to say that they had finally settled in another local congregation. But in the note, this is what They said The struggle to find solid teaching and a high view of God and His Word.
is very real. We visited over 10 churches. and rarely did a service begin with the opening of the Word of God. If it doesn't start with the Bible, What does it start with? People need to understand that when God says to Moses, where is it in Deuteronomy 4?
He says, assemble the people. that they might listen to my word. That's the reason for gathering. And if the pastor doesn't understand that, then there's very little opportunity that the congregation will ever get it. Why are you going?
Well, I see my friends. Why are you going?
Well, this, that, the next thing. No, we're being assembled in order that we might hear the very word of God.
Well, where will you hear the word of God?
Well, we'll hear it when the pastor takes seriously Paul's charge to Timothy to preach it. to preach it. Every opportunity that we have, and what's involved.
Well, look at it. Reprove, rebuke, And exhort. In other words, it involves Argument It involves rebuke. It involves Appeal The challenge the the challenge that I find the longer I go. is the challenge of simply acknowledging That the Word of God does the work of God.
By the Spirit of God, in the people of God. The fact that we are entrusted with the privilege of being a mouthpiece is a mystery beyond mysteries. For we are actually in ourselves insufficient of so much of this. It involves the use of our minds. It involves the preparedness to call people to account.
It involves The encouragement that is necessary in order to not dispirit those who are under our care. And you notice he says, and I want you to make sure that you do this. with complete patience. and teaching. Complete patience.
Are you patient? Are you under the age of thirty? You are by nature impatient. I guarantee you, you think you can achieve more in five years than you actually can. You'll need to become older to realize.
What's involved? And especially when you think about what he's going to go on and say. That the fact is that the charge that he gives is not only solemn and straightforward, but it is also strategic. And he's going to explain this in verse 3. For the time is coming, he says.
Now let me just pause here and uh Recount for us something that I have found helpful. I don't have it in the front of my mind every time I'm going into the pulpit, but I want to have this in my mind as I think about the privilege of teaching the Bible. And I put up for you on the screen these. Categories of listeners that William Perkins recounted in one of his books. Who's listening to us when we are teaching the Bible?
Number one, There are non-Christians there. who know nothing about the gospel and they don't care. There are non-Christians who know nothing about the gospel. But they're teachable. There are those who know what the gospel is.
But I've never been humbled. to see their need of a Saviour. There are those who have been humbled.
Some in the early stages of seeing their need. Others who see that they need salvation, not merely improvement. and are convinced that only Christ can save them. There are genuine believers who need to be taught. There are backsliders who are in that condition either as a result of failing to be taught or as a result of a failure to live consistently in the light of what they have been taught.
All in all. We're teaching the Bible. to a mixed congregation of believers and unbelievers.
Now you see, once we are completely convinced That the Bible is the inspired word of God. And we are aware of the fact that that inspired word of God then has to be opened up. Ford. The people. has to be expounded.
Then we have to determine that we're going to be absolutely faithful to that word. And that we're going to seek to be alert. In addressing that word, Not to the congregation we wish we had. But to the congregation that we actually have. I remember Luther m who says things Interesting things.
Luther says at one point in his writing, he says, You know, I have a number of lawyers and doctors in my church. To them, I pay scant regard. I look only for the servant maid at the back. If these others that I've mentioned do not like it, well, they know where the door is. Thank you, Luther.
That's nice. He's such an encouragement to a person like myself. I hope he is to you as well. But there's no point in trying to Pretend that you're teaching to a group of uh uh Cambridge graduates. When in point of fact you're working in a rural congregation with nobody who's actually graduated from Cambridge in their lives.
It's straightforward. I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it?
So Preach it.
Okay. When you feel like it, when you don't feel like it. And let me tell you why. Here's the strategy: for the time is coming when people will not endure.
Sound teaching. Here's the challenge. He's already told Timothy that he was deserted by folks in Asia back in chapter 1. You're aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and he mentions a particular Phygellus and Hermogenes. And so he says, expect a similar reaction.
The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. They will reject it. They'll reject the kind of teaching that will make them healthy and will make them useful. And they will turn instead to itching ears to accumulate a whole group of people that will. Teach them in such a way that they will be relieved of the responsibility of seeing their lives brought under the jurisdiction of the scriptures.
I met earlier today with a group of folks who are involved in translation in various parts of the world. And wherever we were referencing in the course of the conversation, what was striking to me was the amazing influence of people like Joyce Meyer and a health and prosperity gospel that immediately goes into places with vast resources, financial resources and engagement, and skirts around the fringes of a moribund church and secures followers.
Well, you can understand the story they have to tell. The kind of story that's no different from what was going on in the itching ear syndrome in Isaiah's day. And they said to The Prophet, do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions.
Tell me lies, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.
Now, what's Paul saying here? He says you need to understand, you should expect this. You should expect this. They will reject orthodoxy, going in search of novelty. Did we ever think That we would live To the point Where not only would history be deconstructed and language be deconstructed, but biology itself would be deconstructed?
That people would actually embrace such notions. And it's the Bible. That makes things clear. If you're born as a man, You will die as a man. No matter what you do to yourself in the interim.
The doctrine of the authority of Scripture. is challenged most vociferously. At this point in my lifetime, In relationship to the doctrine of man, to the nature of what God has made in making us in His image. You can apply that on your own. But why would people be attracted to that?
Because it's attractive. The Bible's assessment of things is not Immediately appealing, is it? Because the Bible is telling us that we are by nature sinful. that we're guilty. That were lost.
that were responsible. And they were unable to rectify the situation. In that context, Timothy is being urged. To take a stand. to swim against the current.
I charge you, it's solemn. Preach the word. It's straightforward. It's strategic because the time has come now, seasons that will come again and again, they will turn away, they will wander off. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life.
We'll hear more tomorrow about staying on track. You know, for the Apostle Paul, retirement wasn't about coasting to the finish line. It was about running through the tape. And if we're honest, getting older brings with it a fair share of challenges. But what if this season of life could turn out to be one of the most fruitful, meaningful, and joyful seasons for you?
Yeah. Well, today we'd like to recommend to you a book called A Good Old Age. In this book, author and pastor Derek Prime shares warm, practical encouragement for how to grow older with grace, wisdom, and a heart that is focussed on Christ. With short, large print, easy to read chapters, Derrick's book is full of helpful insight about what really matters as we age. namely, continuing to serve Christ and growing in godliness.
Ask for your copy of the book A Good Old Age when you donate to support the Ministry of Truth for Life. You can give online at truthforlife. org slash donate or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. And if you'd like to purchase additional copies of A Good Old Age for your church library or to share with others, you'll find them in our online store at truthforlife. org slash store.
They're available for purchase at our cost of just two dollars while supplies last. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we'll learn how to avoid losing heart in our worship or slipping into rote mechanical preaching. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
