Staying the Course
By
John Orlando
Crossroads Presbyterian Church, Woodbridge VA
May
14, 2006
Background: The year is 67 AD, and Paul is writing his second letter to Timothy, only this one is written from a cold and dark Roman dungeon. This is, in essence, Paul’s farewell address as he realizes that his execution is imminent, and he sets forth some final words of instruction and encouragement to young Timothy.
Intro
Amazing! That’s really the only word that can describe what God has done here as we celebrate the 4th anniversary of Crossroads Presbyterian Church!
I remember when we were in the planning stages of planting the church here. There was great excitement and anticipation. And I remember one of the reasons why the name Crossroads was chosen. Here we are, near the nations capital, an area that really is a crossroads of sorts as people from all over the world converge here. What a great opportunity to be a witness to the world as the world comes to us!
I also remember the vision of how we wanted to be a place that was thoroughly and steadfastly committed to the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as most clearly articulated in the teachings of the Protestant Reformers, and how God’s infallible and inerrant Word would be boldly proclaimed without compromise in a place, the nation’s capital, where, let’s face it, compromise is the creed, and tolerance at the expense of truth is the virtue and practice.
And as time marches on, and the more our society becomes immersed and driven by this Post-modern way of thinking that teaches there is no absolute truth, and where all value systems, beliefs, and lifestyle choices are all equally valid, the more challenging it will become for a church that is steadfastly committed to the glories of Christ and His Gospel and the bedrock of God’s holy Word, to not succumb to the spirit of the age.
And while the Church of Jesus Christ today faces these kinds of challenges, and while Crossroads Presbyterian Church is situated in a hotbed of what has been called “post-modern” thinking; one thing is for sure; challenges are nothing new to the church! We discover as we read through the New Testament, and then study church history, that the Church of Jesus Christ has always had to combat wrong thinking and false teaching from the very beginning.
With this in mind as we turn our attention to our texts this morning, the great apostle Paul sets forth a number of things throughout this whole letter for his young son in the faith and most notable protégé Timothy to be mindful of.
He encourages him not to be ashamed of the Gospel, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ, and to remember the glorious resurrection of Christ. He stresses the need to be not only sound in doctrine, but also in holy living. He warns Timothy of the perilous times and perilous men that he will be confronted with, and then directs Timothy’s attention to the God-breathed Holy Scriptures. In a nutshell, Paul wants to impress upon Timothy, and all of us in fact, the need to stay the course.
In order to stay the course, I believe that our texts this morning point us to what the church of Jesus Christ has always turned to and rested upon to meet every challenge: the Word of God, and the Work of God. Well, with that in mind, let’s first look at:
I.
The Word of God – (Read 2 Tim 4:1) The first thing to notice here is:
A. The Charge Paul Gives Timothy – In 2:3, Paul told Timothy to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and I am reminded of that imagery here. Military personnel are charged to defend their country and obey the lawful orders of the officers appointed over them. Here it’s as if Timothy’s commanding officer is administering the reenlistment oath to this young officer.
But note, while Paul may be the “commanding officer,” he, just like all military personnel regardless of the rank, is under a higher authority. In Paul’s case, the higher authority that he is under is God, and Christ is the Head of the Church, and Paul, the commanding officer, reminds Timothy of where this charge ultimately emanates from: God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, just as all military personnel are accountable to their superiors for their actions, so Paul reminds Timothy that he is accountable to God, the supreme authority, and Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church, to faithfully carry out this charge. And God has published His directives, if you will, which we are called to proclaim and obey. God has given us His Word, which Paul tells Timothy in 2Tim 3:16 is “God-breathed.”
And that is important, because we realize that what we have in the Bible is not the mere words of men, rather, it is the very words of God, and as such they are infallible and inerrant, and because they are, we can have absolute confidence in their reliability and sufficiency. This was a key understanding that gripped the minds of the Protestant Reformers and resulted in the first battle cry of the Reformation:
B. Sola Scriptura! Scripture, God’s Holy and inerrant Word, is the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience, and as such is the sole infallible rule for faith and practice.
The carnal mind of man despises this, because it utterly destroys his autonomy and his power. You see, there is an absolute truth that is outside of man and that man is accountable before, and that objective truth is God, and God has condescended to us to give us His very words, which are the supreme governing authority over our lives.
This whole idea of Sola Scriptura was in fact the formal cause of the Reformation, because it gave “form” or shape to the key doctrinal matter of the Reformation; the doctrine of Justification, or, to put it another way, they were trying to answer the question, “Why should God let you into His Heaven?” Well, Rome had different authorities other than Scripture that it referred to in order to determine the answer to that question, and to discover ultimate truth. More on that a bit later.
But you see, whether we are talking about the church of Rome, or another false religion, or even our unbelieving secular and post-modern society, this truth of Sola Scriptura is always right at the very heart of the discussion, because ultimately the difference between all of those groups from Bible-believing Christianity is one of authority, and therefore one of ultimate truth.
And what of this truth? Paul’s charge is to “Preach the Word!” and we are to be ready in season and out of season. In other words, we must be prepared to preach the Word, and nothing but the Word, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the controversy, and regardless of the suffering and persecution we may endure as a result of “staying the course” to such a steadfast commitment to the Word of God. And this doesn't just apply to ordained minister! We are all ambassadors of Christ, as Paul tells us in 2Cor 5:18-20 (read)
Paul goes on to tell Timothy he is to preach the word because it is in essence:
C. The Primary Means God’s of Grace – This “Word” that Timothy is charged to preach no doubt refers to the totality of Scripture, but it always has the person and work of Jesus Christ at the center of everything, and, as one Reformed preacher powerfully states, “preaching the Word of God is the primary and supreme means of creating, feeding and maintaining Christ's Church. Preaching Christ crucified, in season and out of season, whether eloquently or as a stutterer, is the most important means God uses to pour His saving grace going into the world.”
Here in our passage, what Paul seems to primarily have in view is the maintenance of Christ’s Church. He tells Timothy to “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.” Here Paul:
1st. Prepares Timothy for the tough times ahead, “For the time will come…” Paul has already made reference to this throughout this letter, particular in 2 Tim 3:1-5 (quote).
2. Highlights the nature of the problem “They will not endure sound doctrine”, Paul has mentioned this earlier as well, making reference to those in 2 Tom 3:7 (quote). Today the church is in a crisis of doctrine, as theology and doctrine are viewed as cold and stodgy. And in an effort to be “relevant” to “Secular Sam and Samantha,” a Word, and therefore doctrinally determined ministry model is expunged for a “seeker” determined model, where meeting the felt needs of the sinner are paramount instead of the glories and excellencies of God as revealed in the person and work of Christ! They do not endure sound doctrine, for sound doctrine drives us to the Word and compels us to submit to God and to think God’s thoughts after Him. Paul then:
3. Analyzes the reason for the problem - “but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers…” Have you ever had an itch that you just couldn’t scratch?! I remember my days in the military when we would have to stand at attention for prolonged periods of time. When you stand at attention, you are not permitted to move. I remember many times being in that position, and I would desperately want to scratch, but I couldn’t. It was miserable!
Here Paul calls people to “attention;” to give attention to sound doctrine; but they have this itch that just has to be scratched! They can’t stand it any longer, and they go about getting relief, not by merely dabbling in things they shouldn’t, which would be bad enough, but by heaping up for themselves teachers! They wanted to make sure their itching ears were always well scratched!
4. Describes the results – “and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” Paul sets forth the clear contrast between the truth and fables. They have exchanged the truth of the Gospel for a lie, and the glory of God for the madness and folly of what amounts to be nothing more than mere fables and myths.
The one thing I have noticed over the years is just how willing people are to embrace complete fairly tales instead of the truth. The post-modern person would rather believe that we are all just essentially a bag of colliding chemicals that emerged from the primordial slime billions of years ago, and our great-great grandparents were monkeys that swung from trees! (“My Grandma, what a long tail you have!”).
Or consider the current fad concerning the Da Vinci Code. People would much rather believe the anti-historical myths and fables in that book than deal with the mountains of verifiable historical evidence that convincingly proves beyond all doubt the historical reliability and veracity of the Scriptures.
But why? Why do otherwise seemingly sensible and intelligent people succumb to such fables? Well, one reason is because the truth of the Gospel challenges all of natural man’s presuppositions, and in many cases, their sensibilities!
But, even more to the point is due to what Paul tells us in Romans 1:18–22. In that passage Paul speaks about how God’s existence and His eternal power and nature are revealed and are made absolutely manifest by the sheer wonder of creation itself. But, Paul says, they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” You see, instead of embracing the truth that is so clearly revealed to them, both in creation, and in their own consciences, sinful man just wants to do what he wants to do!
And of course lying behind this is the whole issue of our sin nature and the fact that prior to being regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, we are in bondage to our sin nature and are wholly indisposed to the spiritual good. What is the remedy to this pitiful condition that man finds himself? The only answer is the Gospel of Jesus, which is the power of God unto salvation! Hence, Paul’s charge to Timothy: Preach the Word! But what of this Word?
What is it that makes this Gospel so powerful that it could turn someone like the murderous Saul of Tarsus in to the apostle Paul, one who was willing to risk life and limb for the sake of Gospel, and for which he finds himself in chains for in a Roman dungeon? This takes us to the second thing that Church of Jesus Christ has always rested all of its hope on, namely:
II. The Work of God – 2Tim 1:8–9 (Read) - Paul roots and grounds everything upon the firm foundation of the omnipotent power and eternal purpose of our Great God and King.
The reason that the Gospel is good news, and the reason that the Gospel can never fail, and the reason that Paul endured all things for the sake of the elect, is because the Gospel is first and foremost the work of an absolutely sovereign God whose plans, purposes, and work are not subject to failure or frustration because He is God, and there is none other!
He, and He alone does according to all of His holy will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. He, and He alone has purposed, and who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Not only that, but we also discover is that all of salvation is:
A. All of Grace – Another battle cry of the Reformers was Sola Gratia, Grace Alone! In salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life, and salvation is in no sense a human work.
This is really the thing lay behind what came to be known as the material cause of the Reformation, namely, the doctrine of Justification. The Reformers declared, contrary to the dogma of the Church of Rome, that a person was justified—declared righteous before God forever—through faith alone, that is, by trusting and relying upon the person and works and merit of Jesus Christ alone as the sole ground of justification.
Sola Fide, faith alone, is the sole instrument through which a person appropriates salvation to himself, and as he, by faith alone, rests and trusts in Christ alone, the perfect righteousness of another—Jesus Christ—is imputed to him, and it is to that righteousness that the sinner takes his stand and places his only hope.
The question though is what lies behind faith? How does a sinner comes to have saving faith? Why do you believe and your unbelieving doesn’t? The answer is by God’s grace alone.
Saving faith is a gift of God that is secured by the perfect work of Christ on the cross, and then given by the Holy Spirit to all those given to Christ from before the foundation of the world. J.I. Packer, who helped translate Luther’s work The Bondage of the Will, states:
Quote: "The doctrine of free justification by faith only, which became the storm-centre of so much controversy during the Reformation period, is often regarded as the heart of the Reformers' theology, but this is hardly accurate. The truth is that their thinking was really centered upon the contention ... that the sinner's entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only. ... Is our salvation wholly of God, or does it ultimately depend on something that we do for ourselves? … to rely on oneself for faith is no different in principle from relying on oneself for works, and the one is as un-Christian and anti-Christian as the other."
Salvation is all of grace! Second, we also discover the truth that all of salvation is:
B. All of Christ – Look at v. 10 - The phrase “abolished death and brought immortality” are apt summary’s of the perfect work of Christ in His saving work on the cross. We read in other places where Christ has redeemed us, Christ has reconciled us, Christ has bought us, Christ has propitiated the Father, that is, He has fully satisfied the wrath of an infinitely Holy God by taking our place and bearing the full weight of the full measure of God’s righteous indignation against our sin.
In other words, Christ has abolished death and brought immortality to light through the Gospel! It truly is finished! And notice; these are things that Jesus actually, not potentially, accomplished! Our salvation is perfectly accomplished by the work of the historical Christ alone.
The Reformers referred to this truth as Solus Christus, that is, Christ Alone! His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone is the sole sufficient and efficient cause of our salvation.
Christ appears at just the right time in Redemptive History, as One born under the Law to redeem those under the Law, and accomplishes and finishes all that is required to secure and infallibly guarantee the salvation of all those given to Him by the Father; a multitude that no man can number from every nation, tribe and tongue, who, as Spurgeon said, “through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.” Hallelujah; what a Savior!
And, as we touched on earlier with reference to God’s grace, the redemption which Christ perfectly accomplished is perfectly applied by the Holy Spirit to all those for whom Christ made atonement. Thirdly, we also discover that since the Gospel is indeed the work of God and has at its foundation in God’s power and God’s eternal purpose, it produces in us:
C. The Assurance of God – V 12 – Paul realizes that it is God, and God alone who is His keeper. God will keep what we have committed to Him until that Day, because He is faithful, and it is upon His grace and His power alone that we place our hope and take our stand, because He alone is our Rock. He alone is our Mighty Fortress, a bulwark never failing, our helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. And our hope built on nothing less than Jesus’ Blood and righteousness. We dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name…on Christ the sold rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conclusion
Going back to our first passage this morning, Paul tells Timothy in 2 Tim 4:5, “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
What a great exhortation to all Christians down through all ages as we engage a lost and dead world that despises Christ and the offense of His cross. God has appointed laborers to carry out His work, and that’s where we come in. Think of it beloved! God has privileged us, as trophies of His grace, to go and proclaim His Gospel of grace to the world!
As such we turn to and rest upon the infallible and inerrant bedrock of God’s holy Word, and boldly proclaim the glories of Christ and His Gospel because it is first and foremost the work of an absolutely holy and sovereign God whose plans, purposes, and work cannot possibly fail because He is God, and there is none other! And we, like Paul, can have absolute assurance that He who began a good work in us will complete it to the end.
And so here we are, celebrating the 4th anniversary of Crossroads Presbyterian Church, and as I stated, it is indeed amazing to see what God has done here at Crossroads! You are in a place where people from all over the world converge, and a place where Post-modern thinking thrives, and in our passages this morning, and really this whole letter to Timothy, it’s as if Paul is telling Timothy, and us—Crossroads corporately, and every individual believer:
“Don’t give up! Stay the course! Though all hell may be breaking out against you, and though you may be enduring all kinds of afflictions for the name and sake of Christ, keep fighting the good fight of faith! Keep standing up and proclaiming the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ because the Gospel, and the God of the Gospel, are a Mighty Fortress that cannot be overwhelmed and cannot be defeated!
In your daily lives, keep feeding upon and remain anchored in this Glorious Gospel that is all of grace, all of Christ, and is all Soli Deo Gloria, to God’s glory alone!
Preach the Word! Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, for greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world!”
Remain steadfast, beloved, with the cross of Jesus Christ lifted up before you, the world behind you, and the glorious riches of God’s eternal Kingdom awaiting you. Amen and Amen!