[0:00] We are going back to 2 Timothy 2. Let us read the first two verses there.
[0:40] We are going back to 2 Timothy 2.
[1:09] We are going back to 2 Timothy 2.
[1:39] We are going back to 2 Timothy 2. We are going back to 2 Timothy 2. Now when you come to the book of Timothy, you find one of the major themes of the book of Timothy is the issue of false teaching.
[1:56] There are different facets of false teaching in the church in Ephesus. And it is from this context where Timothy preached the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:10] So in 1 Timothy 2. So in 1 Timothy 2. There is a lot about false teaching. I just want to highlight maybe a few verses. Turn with me in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 3.
[2:23] 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. I urged you when I went into Macedonia remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that teach no other doctrine nor give yeas, febles and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly education which is in fact.
[2:54] Chapter 4 and verse 1 of 1 Timothy it says, now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving yeas to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Look at chapter 4 2 Timothy 4 chapter 4 verse 3 for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have eating ears they will give up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and to be turned aside to febles.
[3:52] Paul taught Timothy how to deal with hostity. some of the things that he brought up as follows. The first one is in 1 Timothy 2 in fact we are not going to read that chapter but in 1 Timothy 2 what does he do?
[4:18] He says you must pray. Right? I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and so on will be made for all men.
[4:30] You know you pray for people not only you pray for people you are praying so that in your church there is not total dependence on God in everything so in order to deal with hostity we must have a prayer for church a church that prays for the preacher a church that comes to the church prayer meeting and because how else are we going to do Christian ministry without prayer and so Paul you know puts prayer in a very important place as far as the young man Timothy is being told here but secondly it says you must choose elders and deacons who are qualified according to scripture and that is in 1 Timothy 3 so elders and deacons are leaders who must be biblically qualified one of the problems about hostity is that you have elders and deacons who are grounded in the faith you know whose marriages or relationships in that area is not good at all who are not living lives according to scripture as it were and so it says when you are choosing leaders make sure they are in accordance with 1 Timothy 3 what the bible teaches you above reproach right and managing the family well and being grounded in the scriptures now if you are going to deal with host teachers you must first of all have your leadership sorted properly and I mean 2 Timothy 4 and verse 2 it says dealing with host teachers you must preach the word preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince review exhort with all long suffering and teaching if you want to deal with host teaching you must teach the truth and the scriptures are the truth and the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth if you are teaching the Lord Jesus Christ then you are going to be dealing with host teaching this in this particular generation when you are delivering God's word now you must make sure that you are preaching the word you are not just teaching your ideas things made up by men but it must be something that comes from the word of God so host teaching can be dealt with right now by teaching what is in scripture by explaining what the bible says you know the unfolding drama of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ you look at any page of scripture in the bible old and new you will find that you can be able to teach about the Lord Jesus Christ in there and so when you teach the truth you are dealing with the issue of false teaching then the passage that we are going to have tonight second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 2 it says and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also if you want to do or to deal with false teaching for my grandmother
[8:17] I write my sixth grandmother you must raise a new generation of preachers right preachers might become scarce there may not be as many different parts of the world who are faithful but it is important that the local church invests in a new generation of preachers and I have come across churches not only in Zambia but even here when the pastor retires or you know he resigns whatever happens or he dies you find that's when some of the churches are saying oh where are we going to find another pastor and he starts searching all over the place but what about raising your own young men within the church so that when the pastor goes there is someone within the church who is ready you have been training a young man who is able to take over the weight of God raising a new generation of preachers is dealing with false teaching in the future so we don't just deal with the false teaching now you deal with the false teaching in the future the apostle
[9:32] Paul says deal there for my son now try and observe where this started from if you turn with me to Acts chapter 16 in the book of Acts chapter 16 we read in verse 1 then he came to David and Israel and the holy certain disciple was there named Timothy the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed that his father was Greek and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were Alistra and Iconia who wanted to have him go on with him and he took him and circumcised him because the Jews were in that region for they all knew that his father was Greek if you remember the apostle Paul on his first missionary journey he went with Barnabas and he went to a number of places and then they returned back to Antioch and then there was an issue to do with circumcision where it contributes to salvation and there was the
[10:42] Jerusalem council and it was noted that salvation is by grace and grace alone and so they went and reported back to the church in Antioch and along with them Silas joined from Jerusalem and he went to Antioch as well and so now when Barnabas and Paul were to set on their second missionary journey you find that there was a big dispute between them because Barnabas wanted to carry John Mark and Paul said no he had turned back and as a result of that Paul ended up going with Silas for the second missionary journey from the first missionary journey the young man Timothy must have been converted in one of the churches and now they find that this young man is well spoken of as someone who has grasped the things of the
[11:42] Lord and his testimony was outstanding and the apostle Paul says young man come and learn from me come on this particular mission journey so when you look at the time when Lydia was being converted Timothy was there when the slave girl in Philippi was being released from that different divination spirit Timothy was there the Philippian jailer as I guess converted Timothy is there when there was an uproar when they were you know basically calling out remember when they said great is the Diana of the Ephesians and so on Timothy was aware of all that was going on at that particular time as all sufferers Paul and Timothy was available to actually see it by you know with his own eyes that the
[12:48] Apostle Paul you know was being persecuted you know for the gospel Tim Paul says my son yes come with me come and see the suffering that I'm going to go through come and learn from me because later on you are going to be in charge Tim they didn't know how it was going to be but he followed the Apostle Paul and Silas on that particular mission journey and the Bible tells us 2 Timothy 2 verse 1 you therefore my son so Paul has got Timothy his son and he says be strong in the grace that is in trust Jesus dealing with false teaching those who know the doctrines of grace need to have their sons or daughters people that they are training doctrinally one of the things we used to do at our local church in
[13:53] Kittweb the ones who got baptized they were then taken into a doctrinal class the basics of the Christian faith so that they know what we stand for just as you read the confession here you know there ought to be that grounding what you have put in your constitution as the beliefs of the church the young believers must be taught so the question is who is your Timothy who are you training who is your son who is your child who is your daughter in terms of the doctrinal!
[14:33] beliefs of the church and then Paul says you must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus this is another area where people come up with all sorts of things our grace must be strong in our Lord Jesus Christ we are saved by grace our Christian walk is by grace you see the Galatian legalism what does Paul say he says I boss nothing else but the cross you look at the legalism what does Paul say look at the sufficiency and supremacy in all our Lord Jesus Christ we read Ephesians 2 verse 8 by grace by yourself through faith grace where else in the Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere else you see if your religion does not have the
[15:36] Lord Jesus Christ then it is false because the Bible tells us there is no other way that we can come to God except to Christ I know there are many ways of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and so there are many ways of going to God no no no no no there is no other name under heaven by which we must be served if there is a religion where there is no Christ in it take it from me it is false it will not lead you to God because the Lord Jesus Christ has clearly said I am the way the truth and life and no one comes to the Father you cannot know God without the Lord Jesus Christ and he has put it very clearly in there no Christ there is no truth because he is the truth he is the truth so
[16:37] Paul says I desired to know nothing but Christ crucified Christ crucified and so the apostle says my son you must be strong in the grace that is in our Lord Jesus Christ if you are going to combat hostaging you must cling to the Lord Jesus Christ you must know the fullness of the grace that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ don't be caught up with other things altogether it is only Christ and Christ alone some people say Christ Christ another prophet no no no we have the popular teaching prosperity gospel which has been beamed into Zambia from America sorry American friends!
[17:28] where you are poor there is something wrong with you as a Christian right if you are suffering as a Christian there is something wrong with you you are king skips you must have the money and you must have the good health all the time and they are using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ because Christ owns everything and therefore you as a child of God there ought to be no time when you are suffering but the apostle Paul says Timothy come and watch how I suffer for the gospel come and watch how I suffer for the gospel and the apostle suffered so much that we need a whole night to be able to talk about his suffering for the sake of the gospel and people come up and say they believe in Christ without suffering no they need to embrace what the Bible teaches rather than the things that are made up by men so the apostle
[18:34] Paul was able to teach Timothy a lot and Timothy was able to learn a lot from the apostle Paul Paul specialised in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and Timothy could see that Paul specialised in preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and Timothy could be able to see that and Arthur was able to be left at Ephesus to be able to look after the church of God so the thrust is coming in from verse 2 which is what we are about in proclamation Zambia and this is about dealing with post teaching not just for now but even in the generations to come we train a new generation of preachers this country has had great preachers that history is very clear we've read about that while in
[19:41] Zambia C.H. Spenjot a well-known preacher at the time of his death they say the whole of London came to a stand still because he was connected with the ordinary people and he was able to preach to so many in the city of London just in the recent passage of Martin Lloyd John who again attracted so many people into London because of the preaching and Paul is saying to Timothy you must preach the words and it is the words that is going to deal with the false teaching and so there ought to be a new generation of preachers should we just glory in the history of the preachers of the past no no no young men today you know we know very well that Spedio started preaching at the age of 16 and
[20:41] Martin Lloyd joins at the age of 21 but today you find young people that age are being told by some of the elders you are too young to get anywhere near the pupil you know you are too young it's important that we develop them to a point that they are able to!
[20:59] reach out if the youngest in the church is my age then there is trouble because we need young men who are able to learn how to preach God's word so that the next generation can be able to be guarded against false teaching and we need that guarding if the truth is going to be preached if Christ is going to be preached we must make sure that there's a new generation of preachers so the apostle says Timothy can you pass on what you have learned from me invest in these are the characteristics of the men you're supposed to invest in invest in reliable men invest in a faithful man invest in men who believe the truth men who are faithful to
[22:09] God just like Moses saw in law you remember when Moses was told what you're doing is too much can you please choose people who can help you!
[22:25] and what kind of men was he supposed to choose it was men of integrity who were capable of doing the work you know there was a description of the type of people that we are going to be delegated to and in the same way that's what our voice is telling Tim here you must commit these to faithful men who will be able who will be able they must have the ability as well it's not a matter of delegating to any man as it were no no no they must be faithful in teaching God's word they must be reliable they must have the ability and then he says Timothy don't be selfish you must pass on what you have played sometimes we we become Christians and so we are rejoicing we going to heaven but we become very selfish we don't want to share the gospel with our children with our parents with our neighbors with our neighbors we just enjoy ourselves now the apostle
[23:37] Paul is saying no Timothy what you have learned from me my child even as I picked you up from Debbie what you have learned from me I want you to pass that on to a new generation of preachers people who are able to do the work of God don't keep it to yourself there are some of us here who are very knowledgeable in the doctrines of the church and there comes up some young people who are not knowledgeable as we are and then the ones who are knowledgeable are just keeping their knowledge to themselves you are doing disservice the change of God when you do that have a Timothy this is not just the pastor teaching we have other people who have known God's truth and there are many ways of passing that on in order to be others so these faithful men are to teach others and they must also teach others they must also teach others and so it goes on you know and on there ought to be this continuity in terms of teaching
[24:54] God's word and doing this ministry it's not always easy and it gives an example of the soldier you know suffering soldier is suffering service you don't distract it by civilian places it's it's not easy to be in ministry and to be able to raise up a new generation of preachers it gives an example of an athlete obedient unfaithful no cheating focus on the finishing line that is a challenge the farmer the hard working slogging service don't be lazy and impatient as it were be strong in the Lord and trust to faithful men share the suffering the Lord Jesus Christ is your focus be strong in the grace of the Lord and when that goes on you find that change is going to survive you know there was a very strong church in north africa where there was augustine and so others well the church must guard against hostages for it to stand the generations to come of