2tim3v10-17

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READ: 2 TIMOTHY 3:10-17 PASSAGE: v10-17 [SERIES #13]

These words come hard on the heels of a particularly dark passage re: the great wickedness that will come in the End Times
We would almost despair reading v1-9 were it not for v9 itself
There we read that with all their wickedness, the wicked can only go so far and no more and that their folly will be exposed for all to see
This reminds us of the words/Job 38:11 where we read of the Lord controlling the proud crashing awesome waves/an angry sea:
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed
Just as God dictates the raging of the sea so that every last particle of foam has its exact landing place, so too He controls the rage of the wicked even when they are at their worst
Read how he dictated to the malignant Satan in Job 1-2 the terms of reference and how Satan had to meekly obey

In this passage, as Paul continues, we see how our Sovereign God dealt with Paul
Paul! His faithful, loyal Apostle Paul!
The one who laboured more abundantly than the rest (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Paul who wrote 12/13 letters/NT and dominates the Book/Acts
It’s all here in this passage - there are 5 things to see:

1) OUR SOVEREIGN GOD ALLOWS MANY UNPLEASANT THINGS TO HAPPEN TO HIS PEOPLE:

A/ Back in 2:3 Paul urged Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier/Jesus Christ
Even if that were just a sound bite – it would really sound good
But it was much more than that
Paul was writing from deep personal experience
Look at how he expresses it in v11

B/ He had different kinds of harrowing experiences:
[i] Persecutions [ii] afflictions
Is there a difference?
One thing is sure: persecutions are man made
It is the persecutions that lead to the afflictions
Some people can ward off the persecutions
But Paul’s trials/tribulations caused him to be afflicted
Word for affliction here is an intense word
Used several times re: the sufferings/Christ
While none suffered to the same degree as He suffered
Yet these afflictions could not be lightly dismissed

C/ Different places where he was so afflicted:
[i] Antioch: Recorded in Acts 13:45
(Not the well known Antioch: Acts 11:26 but elsewhere)
But the Jews gave them a hard time – blaspheming etc.,

[ii] Iconium: Recorded in Acts 13:50
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

[iii] Lystra: Most violent of them all: Recorded in Acts 14:19
And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

Paul knew what it was to shed blood for the gospel sake
He was no armchair Christian, fighting imaginary wars
CT Studd wrote a somewhat scathing booklet called “The Chocolate Soldier” and spoke of them as “dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. Sweeties they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives in a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution.”
Well – this could never be said of Paul

D/ These things did not happen by chance
Wicked men are not in control of these things
Nimrod’s/Pharaoh’s/Haman’s/Hitler’s etc., might think they are
Remember the unsurpassed arrogance of Pilate to Jesus?

Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? (John 19:10)
What arrogance is this – Pilate was not in control
It is God who reigns in all these things

2) OUR SOVEREIGN GOD SUSTAINS HIS PEOPLE IN THE MIDST OF THESE MANY DEADLY/UNPLEASANT THINGS:

A/ Paul spoke from his knowledge of/adherence to: Scripture:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)

Think of many OT heroes like Noah/Abraham/Jacob/Moses etc.,
Think (dramatically) of Daniel and the Hebrew children

B/ Better still, (in a sense) Paul speaks from experience esp. Lystra where he had been left for dead there – but he lived
JVM believed that Paul had died and was resurrected
I doubt it – but his life was spared by the mercy of God

C/ Paul never doubted that what God had done in the past would be repeated if it pleased God to do so in the present/future:
Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (2 Corinthians 1:10)

D/ Sitting in a condemned cell never shook his convictions
He realises that death is just around the corner (4:6)

Must be said that not every deliverance is a physical one
Isaiah was not physically delivered (Jewish Tradition)
Neither had Stephen (Acts 7) not James (Acts 12)
Neither for that matter would Paul be
Yet Paul still saw himself as being delivered

I think Isaiah 57:1 put it all into perspective:
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Death to the Christian is a deliverance from the presence of sin
The unsaved die in their sins and the eternal consequences of their sins cleaves to their souls forever and ever
Not so the saint who swaps his sinning body for a glorious one
No wonder Balaam: Let me die the death of the righteous (10:29)
Far better to die at the stake for Christ than to die in an eiderdown bed without him

3) OUR SOVEREIGN GOD USES THESE THINGS TO SANCTIFY HIS PEOPLE: v10

A/ Paul’s whole Christian life seemed to have been one/suffering
God told Ananias about Paul on the day he (Paul) was converted:
For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:16)

After Paul’s first evangelistic endeavours in Damascus, he had to be smuggled out of the city for his own safety
And on and on and on it went
Yet…

[i] Paul never grew bitter
His “manner of life” (v10) was constantly sweet
He authored that great chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13)
He never charged God with being unfair
He wrote the words of Romans 8:28 “All things work…”

[ii] Paul never backslid away from God
He spoke about his faith (v10)
Backsliding can come through the neglect of the means/grace
With all his troubles/tribulations, Paul maintained his prayer life and the reading/Scriptures and fellowship of the saints etc.,
Earlier on he spoke of the joy that Onesiphorus brought (1:16)

[iii] Paul never lost heart
Not saying: he was never discouraged – but he was not deterred
He maintained his purpose (v10)
He used his long hours in prison cells to win souls (Acts 16)
He took his pen and wrote us his prison epistles
He saw his suffering as enabling him to comfort others with the comfort that he himself had experience (2 Corinthians 1)

[iv] Paul honed his graces by these experiences
They came forth from the fire like gold
He could echo Job’s words:
But he knoweth the way that I take: When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (23:10)

B/ We might be tempted to say that this was fine for Paul
As much as admire Paul – do not exalt him into a super hero
Do not rob him of his humanity and feelings
Did he ever know disappointment and distress? Yes
Did he always get up in the mornings singing happy hymns? No
He struggled with exactly the same things (and worse) than us

In v12, he clearly explains that all who live godly/Christ will suffer persecution to some degree
Reaffirms it with a “yea” – making it certain as opposed/possible
He has not written these things of v10 to set himself for as a unique question – but as one to be copied
Wrote this several times:
“Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Therefore we too can come to this place whereby we can speak of all these graces being intact

C/ Paul here is not glorying in himself nor boasting
He has already given God all the glory
It was the Lord who delivered him (v11)
But he is only stating what is plainly obvious
These things that had fallen out to him in the sovereign will of God had been for his good and had sanctifying influence upon him

4) OUR SOVEREIGN GOD LEAVES THE WICKED TO THEIR OWN DEVICES: v13

A/ There is a declension here – wax worse and worse
Oft times in their wickedness, they are used of God to further His own pure and holy ends
Many of the epistles were written (at least partly) to answer the foolish and dangerous heresies that arose in the early church
God therefore let these men away with so much
Today, we can answer modern day heretics because a of them

B/ But do not say that these wicked men have been violated/God
If you trace the worse and worse backwards (- hence “not so bad” to “even better”) – you still arrive at “evil men/seducers”)
No man in rebellion against God has any reason to complain
God has the sovereign right to use the wicked as He sees fit

C/ When a man is lost – It is because he has damned his own soul
He fits himself for destruction (Romans 9:22)
He will ultimately curse himself/his sin if/when he ends up in hell
He should immediately seek the offered mercy of God
He should repent and believe the gospel
At one time Paul himself was a wicked and seductive person
There wasn’t a trick/book that he would not have used to get the NT Christians to reject their Saviour and revert/Jewish religion
He himself had been deceived and he himself deceived

But grace had found him
From a human point/view: He received that grace for himself
This salvation he ascribed to sovereign grace (Romans 9)
He could easily have been left to his own destruction
God does that
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (9:21)

D/ Even when you see the wicked running out of human control
Remember that it is not out of control for the sovereign God
Seductive though the wicked might be and deceiving – they will not ultimately deceive the elect/God
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. (John 10:4-5)

5) OUR SOVEREIGN GOD ORDAINS THAT WE GAIN ALL OUR VICTORIES THROUGH THE STUDY OF HIS WORD:

A/ We have been pleased to view these things through the God glorifying lens of Divine Sovereignty
Cannot make sense out of history without seeing it as His –Story
Running parallel with Divine Sovereignty is Human Responsibility
Touched on that: the last point re: wicked who damn themselves

B/ Let us see here the responsibility/saints
God helps us as we help ourselves
Had Paul neglected his Bible and prayer time etc., things would have been entirely different i.e. grown bitter and backslid etc.,
But Paul found the greatest sustenance through his Bible
He urges Timothy to do the same – several arguments

-[i] The origin of the Bible (v16)
It is the inspired word of God and therefore infallible etc.,
2 Peter 1:21 – both in the OT and the NT

[ii] The great end/purpose of the Bible (v17)
That’s perhaps a good definition of victory
Not merely good works - but as performed by the man/God

[iii] The profitableness of the Bible in attaining this great end
All outlined in v16 Note order:
Doctrine: Who says it doesn’t matter?
Reproof: Not a nice sounding word – but essential
Correction: Same again –need corrected if we would gain victory
Instruction/righteousness: Holiness does not come automatically
Sanctification is a work of God’s free grace…

[iv] Timothy’s own acquaintance with the Bible (v14)
Seen it very effectively in two close family members
He himself had an early acquaintance with it
Let him therefore but continue in the things learned
A good text for those who want change
Never change the bible way – cry is continue, not change

THE END

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