The Man of God

I'd like to read in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Let's begin reading in chapter 3 from verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of or from whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect or may be complete, truly furnished unto all or every good work.

I charge thee therefore before God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge thee, the quick, 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 longsuffering 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.

Watch thou in all things, or be sober in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. So I'd like to read, I trust it will follow with what our brother has been so ably bringing before us in relation to the anticipation of the believer and the present work of God in each one of our lives as we wait for that glorious day. I want to think with you about Timothy in relation to the Old Testament prophets.

Never thought of this before personally, but maybe you haven't either. But I want to think with you about this man's responsibility and how it would apply to you and me in our present day as we would have this responsibility also individually that we might uphold and proclaim the Word of God to the people. I know that you are well aware of the fact that Timothy is the only one of the New Testament that is called a man of God.

Two times over you find this young man being addressed as a man of God and the wonderful title it was. I would say that to have that approval and that expression from a man like Paul to Timothy, it would be something that you and I would long to have. We should go in for that approval.

We should go in for that recognition that you and I individually and personally are men or women of God. What I want to point out to you is the fact that in the Old Testament you'll find that term used for a number of people. You'll find it used in relation to an angel in Judges chapter 13.

The woman, Manoah's wife, says that the man of God appeared to me and brought her a message concerning a son that was to be born. Again we find it in relation to David. He's called a man of God a number of times and we find of course Moses called the man of God a number of times as well.

You'll notice as well that in the Old Testament the majority of the times that we read about a man of God it's a prophet. There's a man that is charged with the responsibility of bringing a message directly from God for the benefit of the correction for the exhortation of God's people. A man that has come out for the presence of God who knows the consciousness of God's presence and he has a sense of that responsibility that he is bearing from God a message that the people need to hear.

And so that you see that the prophets were raised of God in the Old Testament time that they might they might be the means of conveying the truth of God for the preservation of the blessing of the people of God in that particular time. I think that we could probably say with some degree of accuracy that God's initial purpose was to not only speak to his people but also to rule his people through the priesthood. And when we find the priesthood beginning to fail in the days of the judges very soon after that we find that God raised prophets to be used to speak to God's people and convey his mind to them and then of course as a result he raised up kings to rule over them.

So the prophets had that responsibility and what I would like to do with you for a little bit this morning is to link Paul's charge to Timothy in this epistle with God's requisites for the Old Testament prophets and see if we can't learn something about what you and I ought to be in our day not only individually as believers in general but especially in view of those who would stand up with the Word of God to seek to speak to God's people in local assembly capacity or perhaps it's in the conference aspect or in a wider sphere. God is always looking for men and women of God. That's no different in our day.

Very marked in this particular epistle that Paul is reminding Timothy of the tremendous need that is going to face him, the responsibilities that are going to be placed upon him and the vital essential aspect of his life and character that if he is going to carry on testimony and convey truth to others as he speaks about it in chapter 2 and verse 1 he will have that great need to know the reality of God's presence and to be faithful to God's message and to be consistent in his life and character with all that he seeks to bring before God's people. I think that when you look at the end of chapter 3 and I don't want to go into detail in chapter 3 in verse 14 through 17 but I want to try to emphasize to our hearts very briefly that what is in view in that section is that for this man of God and his particular responsibility he needs to have a personal preservation that would be based upon the certainty of the Word of God itself. Timothy is going to face as you and I face in our day tremendous pressures upon him, different aspects of his life and ministry that are going to be tested very severely and if he is going to maintain truth for God in his day and if you and I are going to maintain truth for God in our day it must be on the basis of the fact that we have an absolute certain conviction about the validity, the inspiration of the Scripture and its applicability to ourselves today.

You see Paul is reminding him first of all that you need to continue steadfastly, you need to continue in the value and the reality of the things that you've learned from Paul and from many others who have gone before. That is he was going to continue the character of their ministry, he was going to continue the different function that would fulfill and complete that work and to carry it on to a future generation. I can apply that to myself very simply and of course the prophets of the Old Testament could appreciate the fact that their ministry in their particular period of time was a continuation of the work that God had done before.

They weren't isolated, they weren't separated from those that had gone before them, that they were carrying on in a different period of time perhaps under different conditions the need of bringing the Word of God in that consistent way before the people of God. And he says not only that there's that which he had learned from the time he had been among Paul and those that had gone before him but he says here's the basis for it, all Scripture is God bringing. I hope you and I can appreciate in our hearts today the tremendous value and the importance that places upon the book that we hold in our hands.

If this book that we have in our hands is God breathe it makes it that which is intensely important in your life and mine. It means that it's not optional, it means it's not something that I can discard this part or accept the other part or minimize another part or accept and emphasize another part. All Scripture he says is God breathe and that places the responsibility on you and me that I must accept it.

I must recognize that this is God's voice to be personally and if I'm not convinced of that I could never convey it to somebody else. The certainty, the absolute assurance of a person's mind, an individual believer being absolutely convinced that this is the Word of God breathe out of God, the very breath of God that has given life to our souls by imparting truth to us concerning the Lord Jesus. It has brought us into a relationship to him and also feeding that life that we've been reminded of.

So the responsibility of Timothy is to recognize that and to carry that out in his life even as the prophets of old. You remember the Old Testament prophets standing up to speak a word to God's people in those days, spoke with a distinct knowledge that they were speaking what God had spoken to them. You notice down in chapter 4 he says a relation to that that he is to preach the Word and that doesn't mean that Timothy would have the option of adding to it whatever he thought.

He had to preach the Word because it was divinely inspired. And so the confidence and the assurance that prophets had in the Old Testament and Timothy had in his time should be that which would would protect to preserve us in our day brethren. We're living in a world in which the truth of God is being attacked on every hand.

We are living in a day when truths that have been very precious to God's people over the years are being minimized or other things are being substituted. This is the scripture that is God breathed. It's not only God breathed, divinely inspired and given to us by the power of the Spirit of God, but it is also sufficient.

He says it's sufficient, it's that which is all we need to bring about conviction. He says that in relation to the word reproof. For correction, for instruction in righteousness and as well for doctrine that's what comes first.

In other words, Paul is telling Timothy that the Word of God and that's of course one of the themes that's very strongly emphasized in 2nd Epistles, that is the tremendous importance of the Word of God. We're here today I hope because we desire to hear the Word of God ministered to us. For would to God it would instill in our hearts a desire to obey it and to put it into practice and to live in the in the effectiveness of it.

That it might touch our lives in every aspect, bringing teaching, giving us instruction, as well bringing conviction to our hearts and souls and and reproving us in the ways when we get away. And then directing our steps so that we might continue in a pathway of righteousness for here. And the aim of it all Paul says is so that the man of God may be complete.

To bring that individual into the ultimate purpose of what God has for him. We need to continually emphasize to our hearts that only by filling our hearts and lives with the Word of God and feasting upon it and put it into practice will we brought it to the point of completion so far as God's desires for us are concerned. So he's looking at the personal preservation of this young man.

I say to younger believers don't try to think that you could live a life for God without filling your heart and soul with the Word of God. You've got to spend time in the book. You've got to recognize that this is the only way that I can grow.

The only way that you and I can be preserved. I think that any ultimate failure in the life of a believer can be traced to the fact that at one point in their life they cease to they cease to recognize the place that the Word of God had to have. It's essential.

It's not optional. We must apply ourselves to God's Word and apply its truths to our lives. When I look at chapter 4 and I want to go on to chapter 4, four things I'd like to mention from chapter 4 wherever read.

That if in chapter 3 in verse 14 through 17 we have this personal preservation by the use and the proper appreciation of the Word of God. In chapter 4 it's the prophetic character of a ministry that would serve to preserve God's people. In verse 1 I want to notice with you his accountability.

Paul says the second time that he's speaking to him in chapter in 1st Timothy he gives him a charge as well in relation to conveying the truth and the teaching that Paul has given to him. Under the assembly where he is likely in Ephesus there, he has a charge in that case as well. But here Paul is charging him in the sight of God and our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Emphasizing the deity of Christ by the way, but also as if it were to say it is to say that here you are in your service and your responsibility. Recognize your accountability to God as if you're directly in his presence and his eye is looking upon you and he is examining, assessing all of your sphere of service and everything you do. Recognize this you're not only in the eyes of men but you are serving in the eyes of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why what a tremendous difference that would make in our lives wouldn't it? If I were continually conscious of the fact and you were continually conscious of the reality that in our service no matter what it is we are being seen by the eye of God continually. That means that we are responsible to him. Now do you notice it's in view of the fact that he is going to judge the living and the dead.

That is to say that there's a day coming when all men and all acts of life are going to be assessed by God. I know there's a difference of opinion, there's a difference of comment and comments that they're interpreted so far as the living the dead. Some would associate that with the believer and the unbeliever, might be.

Some would associate that with the judgment of the living nations in Matthew 25 and the judgment of the great white throne in Revelation chapter 20. Be it as it may, he's going to judge all men. Every believer, every unbeliever, every person that has walked the face of this earth is going to stand to their accountability to God and you and I are no exception.

It's not a judgment for condemnation. It's certainly in view of an assessment because he says it's a view of his appearing and his kingdom. That future placement, that position in relation to the kingdom of God is going to be determined by how you and I are acting in our faithfulness to him in the day of his absence.

So he has accountability. What Paul says, I charge thee therefore before God, it's not the idea so much of a definite command but it's an earnest exhortation. It's an adjuration.

It's the idea of calling on witnesses to recognize the importance of a statement. So Paul is using this so that he might stir him up, that he might exhort him, that it might enable him to go on in his faithfulness in the absence of the Apostle Paul. I just say that in relation to the prophets of the Old Testament, they were men who recognized the fact that they had a personal responsibility to God.

They might faithfully handle the message God had given them, even though it was a very difficult one at times to bear. The easiest route for anyone to take when they're speaking the Word of God is to take a safe route. They take the route that many in the Old Testament time you remember called on the prophets, don't tell us those things, don't warn us of those things, don't remind us of things that are wrong, but a faithful prophet recognized that his responsibility was not only the people, his responsibility was to God.

Brethren and sisters, you and I need to remember that. That if there are brethren that stand up in a platform and they seek to speak to you and there's messages that you don't like to hear, they have a responsibility to God to convey to you and me that which will speak to us and arrest us and turn us and bring about the results of God desires. So here's a man that has accountability and he recognizes that he is moving as it were in the presence of God.

My mind goes back to Elijah in 1st Kings chapter 17, you remember he appears out of nowhere seemingly and it comes before Ahab that wicked prophet and he says, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be do or rain these years but according to my word. That was a man that was conscious of the fact that he had come out for the presence of God, he was coming with a solemn responsibility to bring a message that was totally undesired by a wicked king, but his responsibility was to God and he had to give account to him. Again I think of Micahiah in 1st Kings chapter 22, remember when Ahab and Jehoshaphat were gathered there and Ahab wanted to persuade Jehoshaphat to go to war with him and he had his 400 prophets of Baal gathered, they all said go up the Lord's going to deliver them into your hand.

Well Jehoshaphat said there has to be one more prophet somewhere. The 401st prophet was finally called and Micahiah came and the messenger that brought him you remember said you know these other prophets have been telling the king good things that he likes to hear now, you ought to tell them the same thing. Well you remember Micahiah says that the word that the Lord hath given me that's what I'll speak and he was one who had seen the Lord as he sent the evil spirit to deceive Ahab so that he'd go up and perish in battle.

These are men like Timothy and like you and I ought to be that were conscious of a personal direct responsibility before God in heaven as those that must give account for our service and for our ministry. Next thing I'd like you to notice is in verse 2 is activity. Accountability in verse 1 is activity in verse 2. What is he supposed to do? Well Paul says preach the word.

If you look up that word preach it would indicate to you and me that it's a very strong word that indicates his responsibility to herald out the message undiluted, unadulterated, unchanged because he's like a herald that is going with the authority of a royal person with the authority of those that are in government those will have the responsibility to bring that message directly to the people with gravity, with dignity, with the expectation that it will carry weight with it because it's the word of the one in authority. He says you herald the word you come with all the dignity of God you come with a sense of the conviction that this is God's Word. You come with all before the people with the assurance that God will bless and use it.

Herald the word, preach it. I don't take that necessarily just to apply to preaching the gospel that's all right we need to do it certainly when we preach the gospel we need to preach it with the authority of God and the recognition that this is God's message. Well he's speaking about his responsibility also to believers and whether it be one or the other we need to recognize that this is the great responsibility of those who would stand up and give the Word of God to God's people.

Herald it out, tell it as God has given it. You notice that he says that there must be a dignity in his bearing, there needs to be a clear declaration in his message, there needs to be decisiveness in his delivery, there needs to be a determination that would stand against opposition. Preach the Word.

I think that when you look at the Old Testament prophets you'll find that that's exactly what they did. Remember that Jeremiah was told by the Lord to stand in the court of the king's house and to proclaim the words that I have given thee and there knowing the opposition that he would face and the lack of desire on the part of the majority of the people yet he went and he preached the Word. I remember and you would remember as well that in Jonah's case even though he was very reluctant for various reasons to go to Nineveh eventually you find that man moving through the city of Nineveh, that wicked city, and what is he doing? He's preaching the Word.

Standing on a corner of a street here in a corner of the next block, I sometimes have used my imagination too much about that but I think about a man going into that city probably a little fear and trembling in his heart, I don't know but I would have any. There he is standing there yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown, heralding the Word. It was what they needed to hear because it produced repentance, produced a change on their part.

And you can look at the Old Testament prophets and you find that that was a characteristic that they were preaching and decisively expressing the Word that God had given them. He says preach the Word. I would take it that that involves the entirety of the truth that God has given us.

Jude speaks about the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. The entire body of truth that you and I have been entrusted with, my dear brethren, it's a precious thing. We have been given truth by the Spirit of God that's been passed down to us by those of a past generation.

Let's not let it go. Let's not forget its importance. The principles that have been established in the Word of God and by godly men that have trodden the path before are those that will preserve us in our day in which we have a responsibility before God as well.

So in preaching the Word he was to preach, going back to verse 16 of chapter 3, it was for the purpose of giving teaching, the doctrine. There's a great need for teaching today. Teaching needs to be systematic.

Teaching needs to be under a definite sense of the need that exists in any situation, any circumstance. Teaching is setting forth the truth of the Word of God in a way that is understandable, apprehendable, and will feed the saints of God and give them that which they need for their preservation. Not only is he going to preach the Word for the purpose of teaching and giving doctrine and unfolding God's mind and giving instruction, but we find that that same Word will have its effect to convict.

Notice the word here in verse 2, reprove or convict. That word seems to carry the idea of expecting a result, expecting that there are those that will respond to it, that there are those that will bow to its truth and that they will recognize that this word applies to me. I hope we appreciate the times when we hear a message given from the Word of God and it speaks to us in a way that draws us up short, makes us think, makes us recognize that we need to get back in line with the truth of the Word of God and seek to put it into practice.

So the word indicates the idea of causing a response and bringing about repentance. But then he says rebuke, and that word seems to indicate the possibility that there are those that won't respond. And yet if they do not respond in a way that is positive toward the Word of God, he says sin has to be rebuked anyway.

The preaching of sin, I notice in the Old Testament, I guess is not very strange or unexpected about the fact that in the Old Testament a great majority of the message that the prophets gave had to do with sin. Ever thought that's what has to be preached insofar as you and I are concerned? A natural tendency in the direction of human nature is to get away from God and to fail to recognize the conditions that can creep into the heart and the life. So he is to rebuke, that is to, that he might expose the wrong of the direction of the characteristics that are being practiced and to deal with it in a righteous way.

And then to exhort, to encourage those who would respond to the truth. But I want to quickly go to verse 3. You can find that's the same characteristic of the Old Testament prophets. In verse 3 and 4, it's not his activity but near its anxiety.

Paul says to Timothy, he doesn't say that the time might come. He doesn't say that it possibly will take place, but he says the time will come. In other words, Timothy, just recognize and be prepared for the fact that the time is going to come when your preaching is going to be resisted, when your teaching is going to be disregarded, when what you seek to bring before the people is not going to be accepted.

He doesn't say it might come, but he says it will come. It seems to indicate that that was a condition that crept in and began to arise even in the days of Timothy himself. We need to ask ourselves sometimes if that is not our own condition today, as we come nearer the end of the church age.

He says the time will come, he says, when they will not bear with sound doctrine. That means that they will not incline themselves, they will not stand with sound doctrine, they will not accept it, they will not allow it to have its effect on their lives. You just be careful because you need to recognize the shortness of your opportunity.

The time will come. He says when they will not bear with sound or healthy teaching but after their own lives, according to their own desires, in other words, shall they heap to themselves teachers because they like to have their ears tickled. It's the idea of that.

And the thought of that really is a desire to hear new things or newer things, not satisfied with the old teaching that has gone before and the setting forth of the truth of God in a very simple, plain way. No, he says, there are those who are going to turn away their ears from the truth. That's a deliberate act.

And as a result, he says they will be turned unto fables. That's a passive. In other words, a deliberate turning away from the truth, a resisting of the truth results in being turned, he says, unto fables.

The word, what he says, be turned here is a word that is very interesting because it has to do with wrenching a bone out of its joint. Dislocation. It carries the thought of the result of this turning away from the truth is that things are going to be brought out of joint and dislocated so that they're not affected.

They can't move and they can't fulfill their functioning longer. He says, you have an anxiety, you have a concern because your time is limited and you need to use every opportunity you have. As a result of that and go going back to verse two, we used to be ready at all times, always available, always ready, always willing to be led, used of God for the purpose of bringing the message of God before the people.

So you see that Paul is warning Timothy. We find that these are, he's warning them about the fact that there will be those who at a point in time will not want to receive this message. I don't need to take you very far in the new, in the old Testament to remind you about the fact that there was a time, in fact, many, many times in the old Testament experience where the message of the prophet sought to bring to God's people was not accepted.

You remember that they told Jeremiah more than once, he said, don't tell us those things, tell us smooth things. He said the thing that we like to hear is when you talk about peace, peace, but God says there is no peace, that's a false prophet. Then again you remember that there were those who rejected the Word of God, rejected the message that God had given them.

For instance, we have in the case of Ahab regarding Micaiah, even the good King Asa in 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 became very wroth with the seer and he put him in prison because he reproved King Asa for depending upon the armies of men and not only on the Lord. And then remember in 2nd Chronicles chapter 25 we have the example of Amaziah who said to the prophet who reproved him for setting up his false gods, he says, art thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear, don't speak anymore, don't reprove me. And the same King Amaziah spoke to Amos, remember, and he said, flee thee away into the land of Judah and prophesy not again anymore at Bethel for it is the king's chapel.

I'm just saying that, brethren, because the pattern of the Old Testament is oftentimes repeated in the New. And those things that are written aforetime are written for our learning. We need to be very careful in our day that we don't allow the same attitude toward clear, plain teaching and correction for the Word of God to affect us.

I wasn't at Stout, I would have liked to have been to Stout, but I wasn't there. We're over Lake Harbor, Wisconsin. Well, I've had the privilege of listening to the majority of the ministry that was given on Saturday.

I do wish I was there because I appreciated listening to it. I would say I concur with the ministry. Likely there were some that didn't.

There might have been some there in Stout that didn't like the ministry that was given on the Saturday. I don't know about the Lord's Day, I wasn't there. That's an attitude we need to guard against.

You'd be very careful. That's what Paul's talking about right here. And when ears are turned away from the truth because I don't like the messenger, or I don't particularly like the message, he says they'll be turned unto fables.

That's a disaster. But quickly I want to close and I want to just notice in verse 5, not as accountability and not as activity, not as anxiety, I want to think about his ability. Watch thou in all things.

That is to be sober. Timothy, like Old Testament prophets, was to be a man that was alert, a man that was aware. You know, in the Old Testament, the prophet was oftentimes called a seer.

He was a seer. He was one who was able to see. He recognized the danger.

In fact, you remember that God told, I think it was Isaiah, that he said he was a watchman. And as a watchman, he had a responsibility to warn the people because he was one who was able to see the danger and to recognize the problems that were coming. And rather than seek to minister the Word of God, we're responsible to warn us and to correct us and to indicate very clearly from the Word of God what we need to do to be preserved in testimony for the Lord in our day as well.

He says, endure afflictions or suffer evil. That if need be, if preaching God's Word and sending forth the truth of what God had given him in his message would cause him to suffer for it, he needs to be willing to accept that. You know, a desire for popularity will always ruin any messenger of God.

We all love to be popular. We all love to be accepted. We all love to have others recognize us perhaps and think favorably of us.

But he's reminded in verse 1 that his responsibility is primarily to God. Endure afflictions, whatever happens. And Paul himself knew the reality of that personally, not only from the world around, but he knew even the accusations and the attitudes that even some believers in assemblies in that day had toward him.

So he says endure afflictions. And then he not only tells him that, but to work, I would take it, work evangelistically, work with a heart for souls, a heart of desire to see others brought to the truth. And then he says, perform or complete by ministry.

I think that when you look at Timothy in his day, anticipating last day conditions and anticipating the difficulties of his service, you can link him with his Old Testament prophets. We've not had the time to look at them very well, but think about them. And in our day, dear brethren and sisters, you and I have a responsibility before God in heaven, having been entrusted with the word of God itself and all of its authenticity and all of its sufficiency.

May God help us to apply ourselves to it, to use it, and to seek to minister it faithfully for the preservation of ourselves and for the preservation of God's people.