2tim1v13-14

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READ: 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-18 TEXT: v13-14 [series #4]

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

If the previous verse (v12) is telling us anything, it is this:
The salvation of God that guarantees the safety of all who commit their souls to Him, trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the Cross is 100% of grace

The child/God has no merit except Christ’s merit
We have no righteousness of our own except Christ’s righteousness imputed to us and received by faith alone
Many of our people burned at the stake for truths like these and therefore they are dearly held and not for negotiation
Yes…we will talk to any man whose religion attacks them, but only with one motive – to win him to a saving knowledge these truths
Without these truths, we believe that souls are lost

When a man comes to Christ for salvation and he is 100% justified and 100% assured/Heaven as if he were already there, yet it must be said: He is no position to merely sit back and wait
No one is carried to skies on flowery beds of ease

The previous verse doesn’t teach it and it is nowhere found anywhere in both testaments in the Bible
This letter doesn’t teach it:
Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2:3)
Soldiers are not ballet dancers performing the graceful movements of Swan Lake to the gentle applause/audience
Soldiers are on the bloodiest battlefields of the earth
They often go without food/sleep/liberty and stare into the vary face of death itself again and again

Yes – salvation is by grace alone and 100% of God
Therefore when we fight, we do so assured of victory
But fight we do and grace ensures that fight we will
4 main thoughts from our text:

1) OUR FAITH IS BASED ON THE FORM OF SOUND AND INSPIRED WORDS DELIVERED THROUGH THE APOSTLES:

A/ Not that we ignore the OT and have no dealings with it
We recognise the unity of the Book/ God
The New is in the Old concealed – the Old is the New revealed
Paul himself: that he preached nothing that was not contained (at least in germ form) in the writings of Moses/Prophets
What we ascribe here to the Apostles, is taken for/whole Bible

B/ This means: we may be described (in a very basic description, but true nevertheless, as far as it goes) as a Book Religion
We hold up our Bibles and declare ourselves ready to live and to die with the truths that we find herein
We repudiate those who have no fixed points of reference for their so called creeds
We see no value in those whose creed is made up as they go along
Seem to think/hoof and today’s “truth” is tomorrow’s “nonsense”
Of course, we also reject those whose fixed point of reference is something other than the Bible or something plus the Bible
We therefore reject the religion of Islam with its Koran
Also reject the religion/Rome with its traditions or JWs etc.,

C/ Are we being uncharitable in doing that?
True: many a good cause can be ruined by uncharitable words
But it is not uncharitable to forgo that which cannot save
Books like the Koran or the Watchtower or the BOM etc., do not qualify as being “the form of sound words”
Such a form alone is to be held unto and the rest let go
Prove all things –test/weigh their worth with a critical eye
What then? What do we keep and what do we get rid of?
Hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
Dump the rest!

D/ Only sound (wholesome words) can do you any good
Every now/again you have to go through your food supplies
You usually bin the stuff that has gone by its sell by date
Why? Because it would be possibly dangerous to eat such things
You can’t eat chickens or eggs that are off!
If your bottle/milk has about 3 different sedimentary layers in it – then pour it out down the drain and get pure milk instead
No less so when we employ faith: retain the form/sound words

That’s what Paul is urging us to do here
It is not unloving to reject false religions
Indeed – it is unloving to accept them as valid
Of course, we must temper our desire for truth with love
We listen to other viewpoints – we gently probe etc.,
But we must reject anything that impinges on the Bible
We cannot compromise on this now nor never

2) OUR FAITH LEADS TO GOOD THINGS BEING COMMITTED TO US WHICH ARE TO BE CAREFULLY MAINTAINED AND HELD: v14

A/ In Timothy’s case here, it could be the ministry
Some argue: it is the power/Spirit to continue the ministry
John Trapp refers it to Timothy’s crown of reward
Or his converts which would be his rejoicing
Others – a reference to the gospel itself

B/ All these things may be considered as true/appropriate
Sometimes the Bible leaves things a little unclear
This means that we must take all things on board
Certainly whatever was the express mind/Spirit at this precise point would not rule out the others elsewhere

Little point holding unto (say) the converts but letting go the Spirit/God that enabled him to win them or letting go the gospel that the Spirit/God used to achieve that great end

No! Let us hold unto all the things that are good
Let us run a tight ship in spiritual things
Not so tight as to be of no real practical use
(Extremes are always to be avoided)
But we cannot be of any practical use if we let/good things go

C/ These good things have been committed to us
What a responsibility is ours not to betray that trust
God bypassed the angels on this matter
Although we cannot say that God by passed the great Christians, yet He did not give them sole responsibility to keep these things
Every last Christian is taken into a responsible position here

Many battle fields in this spiritual warfare
Some of them are of great importance
In Acts 15 legalism sought to get a foothold/early church
What a battle was fought there

In the event referred to in Galatians 2:9 where Peter wavered and nearly wrecked the work/God – again to a legalist challenge
But Paul was there and at great personal risk – he held fast that good thing (in this case/gospel) which had been committed to him

What if Luther had’ve caved in at the Diet of Worms in 1521? Rome would have made great advances
Or if the Calvinists had’ve caved in at the Synod of Dort in 1619? Man centred Arminianism would’ve held great advances

These have been some of the great battles in church history

But what about some unknown school boy/lass taking a stand (say) in a compromising Christian Union in school?
Hardly ever going to be earth moving, is it?
But it is his/her Diet/Worms – their responsibility/stand fast
We do not necessarily always have choice of our battlefields
Some of them might be big – others might be not so big
But God wants us to stand nevertheless for the truth
Buy the truth (He says) and sell it not (Proverbs 23:23)
No matter where the market might be
Whether it is figuaratively on the floor of the NYSE or in the local car park at a car boot sale…
These precious things which God Himself has committed to us are not for sale or to be given away or watered down

3) SUCH GOOD THINGS ARE TO BE CAREFULLY MAINTAINED AND HELD IN FAITH AND LOVE:

A/ God doesn’t only want us to take our stand, but take our stand the right way – a way that is glorifying to Him
It is the Jesuit who says that the end justifies the means
It is the JW who puts lying into the frame under what he calls the Strategic War Strategy
But such tactics (whether for a good cause or not) must never be employed by the child of God
No lie is of the truth (1 John 2:21)

God wants us to fight these battles and take these do-or-die stands for the gospel etc., with two principles prominent:

B/ First named ingredient is faith

[i] Obvious one to state: We can only stand with saving faith
True… that even unsaved men can contend for gospel truth
I do not doubt that Judas fought the Pharisees admirably
Many unsaved backed the Protestant Reformation against Rome
Not always for purest of motives – but they did it nevertheless
But such can never be said to be pleasing to God
A child of wrath always remains so until that wrath is lifted
We cannot defend the truth of God without saving faith

[ii] We must have faith in these doctrines themselves
Obviously we can’t be Christians without faith in them
But the difference may lay in degree rather than in kind
If we are to hold these truths successfully, then we must really hold them sincerely and dearly with our hearts
Many times, we can hardly crawl above lip service
Do these truths really animate us?
We mention previously some of the great occasions where a stand was taken for God’s truth: Jerusalem, Worms, Dort etc.,
These places weren’t theological Sunday afternoon tea parties
Those who stood fast did so because these doctrines had gripped their very souls and they believed them/all their hearts
Someone once told old Rabbi Duncan that a student boasted how he had got hold of the Doctrines of Grace
RD asked whether the DOG had got hold of the young student!

Only when these great doctrines/matters have really got hold of us that we will really be earnest about keeping them
The Diet of Worms wasn’t a mere debating chamber
John Huss, 100 years earlier, had gone to debate Rome on the great issue of transubstantiation and never came back alive
Luther knew: Rome’s safe journey guarantees were worthless
But Luther was prepared to die at Worms if needs be
He certainly wasn’t going to Worms to say “Maybe the Pope is right after all…maybe we are saved by faith plus human merit”
Really believed: men are justified by faith without the deeds/law

[iii] We must hold these doctrines in faith
Faith that they will endure to the end of time
Faith that although truth may (at times) be fallen in the streets, yet she will rise to sit upon the throne
Faith that the Devil’s lies must at last be exposed and fail

Sometimes, it is this that keeps us going
The wee picture gets so depressing
But it is the BIG picture that encourages us not to quit like men
Every day, God is adding to His church such as should be saved
How is He doing that?
Through belief of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord (Hosea 4:6)
God taking His own hitherto rejected truth and applying it powerfully to some poor sinner’s heart so that they get saved
I believe this is so/will be so until: last elect soul is gathered in

This is the way that we must guard these things
Do it in faith and victory will be yours
This is the victory that overcomes the world – even our faith (1 John 5:4)

D/ But faith is not the only virtue that is to be employed here
Faith is to be accompanied by love
These two graces are lie Siamese twins – never really apart
When faith works – it works by love (Galatians 5;6)

[i] There is a great danger – perhaps not the greatest danger -
But a danger nevertheless: We can take such a great stand for truth and do it without the vital ingredient of love
Of course, I am aware of those passages like 2 Peter 2 where Paul likens apostates to vomit eating dogs etc.,
You might say “That doesn’t leave room for much love”!
OK – granted there is a time when our tackles need to be hard
Galatians 1:6-8 where Paul anathematises false teachers etc.,

But here is something I notice:
That there is a breed of orthodox professing Christians out there whose entire life is spend in damning apostates
Like some people who are brutally honest: Love the brutality rather than the honesty
This ought not to be so

[ii] Paul (of Galatians 1 fame) wrote a whole chapter on the necessity of love in the Christian life (1 Corinthians 13)
Perhaps it is with the thought of unloving yet orthodox Christians in mind that he wrote the first two verses:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

These lines were not written to discourage any strong stand for God and truth – but to preserve it
Without honest, genuine love, such a stand is nothing before God

4) SUCH THINGS CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THE POWER OF GOD DWELLING IN US:

A/ OK- Once again we have set forth what God requires of us
We have set forth the way in which God wants us to do His will
It certainly isn’t by hook or by crook
What works in the sight/men may miserably fail in sight/God
How then do we both do what needs done and do it right?

B/ Not left in the proverbial lurch when it comes to these things
God equips His people to do His blessed will
Text itself supplies the answer to our need:

[i] Our faith and love is in Jesus Christ (v13)
IOW: We apply to Him for these things and we find them
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:19)

[ii] These things can be kept by the Holy Spirit/dwells in us (v14)
We get these needful things from Christ
We put them into action through the power of the Holy Spirit
Note: We don’t need to get the Holy Spirit
This would take us down a very unfortunate Charismatic route
“You don’t want to go there…”
The Holy Spirit is already in us
He has been in us ever since we got saved
What we want is the Holy Spirit within us to enable us to keep these things which are sound and good in faith and in love

C/ We ought to take the mystical element out of this
So often we treat these verses as if they might/might not work
We can see them working for others – but not for us
But let’s press ahead in faith and expect God to do His part

This is not something that you can work up from within
It is something that you just get on with
You as God to help you to take your stand coolly and calmly
Can God turn you away after making a request like that?
If you are asking these things for His glory – then He cannot refuse to answer your prayer

May God help us to rise to the occasion here
If ever such a stand was needed, it is in our day
We do not have the liberty of leaving it to others
It is here in the Book for us
May we re-echo Luther: Here I stand …etc.,

THE END

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