WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:05.440 We are continuing in our series through 2 Timothy. 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:16.559 And so we're looking at this entire year, but specifically in this book, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and what it means to be a disciple maker of Jesus. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:22.879 And so we're getting this rich truth out of this letter to help us understand that more clearly. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:38.560 And last week, Pastor Jared worked through verses 8 through 13 to show us how remembering the hope of the gospel, Jesus Christ risen from the dead, strengthens us to suffer well. 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:45.119 And this call to remembrance is going to continue to guide us in our passage today. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:49.200 So if you have your Bible or app, we're going to be working through this together. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:53.520 Make sure you turn to 2 Timothy 2, 14 through 21. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.359 Verse 14 says this remind them of these things. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:04.719 So these things, what he has just previously talked about in the letter, and now he's going to push forward, right? 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:13.920 And charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearer. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:27.920 So this call to remembrance continues, but it's also accompanied this morning by a charge that the Apostle Paul intends for both Timothy and the church in Ephesus, right? 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.319 Remind them of these things. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.159 Charge them before God. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:40.400 So he's writing this letter to Timothy, but it's intended to be read and communicated to the entire church at Ephesus. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.560 So this goes for us also. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.920 To remind them and to charge them before God. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:59.840 Paul's calling for the church to remember the good gospel that they had received from him and is charging them to not alter it, or the language he's going to use is to swerve from it. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:08.879 Because if they do, it will have detrimental effects on the health of the church. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:20.080 This is Paul's primary concern, the health of the church, through the gospel of which they preach and the godliness of which they live out their lives. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.560 So Paul's charge here is actually to take an oath. 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:32.879 It means to solemnly swear before God Himself, whose very gospel it is. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:37.599 This is God's gospel that's been entrusted to us. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.039 We talked about this a few weeks ago. 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:44.639 It's been deposited to us that we might be entrusted with this treasure. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:59.039 And the charge is that we would solemnly swear before God that we would refrain from working to split hairs over trivial things that does not do good for the hearer. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.680 It only ruins them, Paul says. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:11.680 You see, there's a lot of people who can latch on to peripheral details, and what they do is they miss the forest for the trees. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:16.639 Or another way to understand is they miss the gospel for the footnotes. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:18.960 Have you ever known a person like this? 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:31.680 I've encountered a lot of them throughout my time in ministry, but they tend to be very obsessed with a particular aspect of theology or doctrine. 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:35.599 And then you look at their life and you say, brother, you're a mess. 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.000 Why are you so focused on this one thing? 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:44.159 Why are you trying to work to split hairs and dissect this thing out so that you can understand it more clearly? 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:50.879 But yet, if you look at the rest of your life, your marriage is falling apart, your kids are disobedient, your finances are a wreck. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:56.560 Brother, lift up your head and look at what's happening around you. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:08.080 Stop with focusing on these trivial matters that do no good for you or those whom you're trying to persuade to think like you. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.240 This is what these people were like. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:18.399 And what we have to work to understand is this that the message makes the hearer. 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.680 This is what Paul's going to emphasize throughout this whole passage. 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:24.240 The message makes the hearer. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:31.680 Because it has this powerful, intrinsic ability to shape and form those who hear it. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.959 Because if the message is unhealthy, is what Paul says, it will ruin or spoil the hearer. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:40.560 Verse 15. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:50.959 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 00:04:51.360 --> 00:05:01.920 So Paul proceeds from making an oath before God to working to present yourself to God, to present yourself as one approved. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:03.920 This is the language that he used. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:22.079 He's charging Timothy to nurture a zeal within himself, this passion to strive to present himself before God as a gospel worker who has been examined, tested, and found approved for what? 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.839 The way that he handles the word of truth. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:30.480 This is Paul's charge to Timothy and the church at Ephesus. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:39.519 You see, this language that he uses for rightly handling it, it means to cut in a straight line, to carve a path. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:57.120 It speaks to the good gospel being like a bulldozer that when rightly handled establishes a straight path for the hearers to traverse their pilgrimage and lived out righteousness. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:00.399 This language is also used throughout Scripture. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:07.680 We see it in Proverbs 3:6 in relation to the straight path of the righteous and the faithful walk. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.439 It says this, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:16.959 Here's what we have to grasp hold of this morning. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:24.319 There's an inseparable relation between the good gospel and godliness. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:39.680 There is an inseparable relationship between the good gospel and godliness, between the proclamation of the righteous king and the lives of his righteous servants. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.759 We see this imagery also in Isaiah 35. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:48.160 A part of our call to worship, we will pick up where it left off in verse 8. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:58.879 But the prophet Isaiah is calling for God's people to be joyful at the news of his salvation, the message, and what's the fruit of that, right? 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:00.160 What's the implication of that? 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:07.519 Verse 8, and a highway, a path shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:09.920 The unclean shall not pass over it. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.959 It shall belong to those who walk on the way. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:16.959 Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:21.920 How reassuring that final statement is to a fool like me. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:36.240 The highway of God's righteousness, established for his people, will be so sovereignly carved and kept that even I will not be able to go astray from it. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.879 This carved path or this highway language, right? 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:45.040 We see it also in the preaching of John the Baptist. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:57.199 Right before Jesus' righteous obedience and baptism, this vagabond preacher steps on the scene and declares this in John 1.23 I am the voice of one crying. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:07:59.680 I have a message of which I'm declaring. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.600 Out in the wilderness, what? 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:05.920 Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:08.319 What was John doing? 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.120 His message was this gospel bulldozer. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:17.519 It was carving a path for Jesus by the message of which he was proclaiming. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:23.439 Because remember, the interrelation between proclamation and pathway. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:29.120 So we observe this relationship between the good gospel and godliness. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:40.639 If God's people are to walk in godliness, then their godly pathway will be carved by the faithful preaching of the gospel. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:47.759 Because it's the message that shapes and forms the hearer. 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:57.360 In the passage, Paul assures us that we have a promise in this good work that there will be no need for us to ever be ashamed. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:17.919 No matter what trials and sufferings that we might face in this life, for the name and cause of Jesus, we will never have to be ashamed if we've worked to handle the gospel rightly in such a way that those whom we have discipled walk faithfully the road of godliness. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:23.840 We can be proud of the good gospel work of which we set ourselves to. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:30.799 Verse 16, but avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:37.519 Look, look, message, path, irreverent babble leading to ungodliness. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.120 And their talk, verse 17, will spread like gangrene. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:49.759 Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:51.919 They are upsetting the faith of some. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:10:04.480 So if in the first part of this passage, Paul works to show Timothy what a good gospel worker looks like, now he's going to compare that to a bad and unfaithful one. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:20.799 In comparison to a good worker who has a zeal to show himself as one approved, a bad worker is lazy and just stands around attempting to split hairs over trivial things. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:26.240 This is what Paul's communicating when he tells Timothy to avoid irreverent babble. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:30.720 He's referring to people who are not busy in gospel work. 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.919 You might know people like this. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.759 They haven't won somebody to Jesus in a decade. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:43.679 They haven't shared their faith with a lost person since they can even remember or recall, right? 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:45.200 They don't live on mission. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:53.200 They're not good gospel workers, but they just want to sit there and debate and argue the intricate details of superlapsarianism. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.480 I honestly don't even know what that word means. 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:58.480 I have a high school diploma. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:10:59.919 It's a theological word. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:00.879 I know that much. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:02.080 You know what I don't? 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:03.360 I don't care. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:06.559 I don't care about the intricate details of these things. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.279 Is it good and fruitful in some ways? 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:09.919 Sure. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:25.200 But if it is what your aim and focuses on, and you are a lazy gospel worker standing around trying to split hairs over doctrine, you are being an unfaithful steward of what has been entrusted to you. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:29.360 The good deposit of the good gospel. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:36.480 Because here is something that will be asked of you as you stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:39.360 What did you do with my gospel? 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:48.320 It won't be, hey, can you unpack for me the intricate details of whatever lengthy theological word you want to throw? 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:48.799 No. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:52.320 He's going to ask you a very plain question. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.159 What did you do with my gospel? 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:12.080 You see, a good and faithful gospel worker is driven by the presence of something that is not in the lives of those who stand around in irreverent babble. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:29.360 A good and faithful gospel worker is driven by the presence of a reverent fear for the majesty and holiness of God, of whom he will have to stand before one day and give an account to how he handled the word of truth that was entrusted to him. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:32.000 And this just ain't on me. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:35.759 This just ain't on the elders here at Sacred Mission. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:42.080 Everyone who claims the name of Christ, this responsibility is handed to you. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:13:00.480 You see, someone who just wants to stand around and debate or argue over trivial things, their very words display their irreverence for God and for his gospel. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:05.200 And look at what Paul says is the outcome of such nonsense. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:11.120 He says it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:20.240 Again, Paul's establishing the relationship between the content of the message and the life of the hearer. 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:29.200 And this lazy and unfaithful work, it's going to be devastating to the life and the health of the church. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:31.120 This is what Paul's concerned about. 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:39.279 He wants Timothy to have a passion and an observation around what is the health of the church. 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:48.000 Because there's another reality about messages, it's their inherent nature to spread. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:49.679 Think about it. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.360 The gospel has spread throughout the earth. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:14:00.879 Not simply because it is the gospel, but because in its very essence, it is a message. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:12.000 The good gospel spreads throughout culture, affecting the lives of those who hear, bringing life, love, hope, joy, and peace. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:22.639 The gospel message is a literal lifeblood to humanity spreading throughout all of those who hear. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:31.120 And in comparison, Paul says that the message of the bad workmen will spread like gangrene. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.559 You see, the message spreads. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:41.440 But instead of bringing life to the hearer, it spreads like a blood poisoning to the body. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:46.720 Now he directly calls out two men to Timothy. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:55.759 And Timothy would be well aware of both their teaching and the impact that it has had on this community of faith here in Ephesus. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:59.679 And his claim is that they have swerved from the truth. 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:02.799 They've missed the mark on what the gospel is. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:10.000 And the implication of that is that they're leading people away into ungodliness. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.440 Because the message is carving a path. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.799 That's another reality about the words of which we speak. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.519 It carves a path for people to follow. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:26.879 And if we swerve from the gospel, we're carving a path away from godliness of which the gospel calls us to. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:30.159 And what is it that these men are teaching? 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:35.200 They're teaching that the resurrection has already happened. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:37.679 Now, hear me, church. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:45.279 This is the fundamental deceptive strategy of every false gospel. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:50.080 It has enough truth in it to be believable. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:56.399 It has enough truth in it to be believable. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.039 You see, in many ways, the resurrection had already happened. 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:03.759 Christ Jesus was raised from the dead. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:11.360 In fact, Paul in verse 8, just before this passage this morning, he says, Remember my gospel I preach to you. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:14.159 Christ Jesus raised from the dead. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.519 Jesus was resurrected unto new life. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:23.919 We who are in Christ by the Spirit are spiritually resurrected into new life through new birth. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.960 We're seated with him, exalted at the right hand of God. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:37.039 There is a truth that the resurrection has happened, but the fullness of the resurrection is still yet to come. 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:57.679 You see, we have not experienced the fullness of resurrection, the fullness of the promise of the gospel that we will in both soul and body and mortal flesh be raised to everlasting life and dwell with God in the new creation. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:17.759 You see, instead of preaching Paul's gospel, which included Jesus Christ risen from the dead, which is the pledge and pattern of his own people's resurrection, they were saying that the fullness of the resurrection is past already. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:21.920 There's nothing left to expect. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:25.920 There's nothing that remains to hold out hope for. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:37.279 This is why it's so critical for us if we're going to begin a work in the kingdom of God. 00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:42.319 We have to begin this good work with getting the gospel right. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:58.000 For us to have a zeal burning within us to present ourselves as one who has been tested and examined to be a good and faithful custodian of the treasure that has been entrusted to us. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:18:59.599 It's the message. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:09.200 This message, this good gospel, it establishes the path of godliness for all who believe to walk along. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:16.880 I don't know if you've observed this about sacred mission, but we don't really love a culture of legalism. 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:24.400 We're not trying to nitpick everything that you do here, what you wear and what you watch and what you listen to and how you act and conduct yourself. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:27.519 And we're just sitting here judging and nitpicking, judging and nitpicking. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:29.359 No, you know what we do? 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:31.920 We preach the gospel. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:35.599 And when we preach the gospel, there's something shocking that happens. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:40.400 It carves this road of godliness, of which our people walk along. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:46.160 And we see the godliness that God calls us to, lived out and expressed in their own life. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:51.359 And we're not just standing around having to nitpick every single detail of their life. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:20:00.960 Because we're not putting the work of right living before the work of the right message. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:06.640 This is at the very heart of our faith. 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:13.119 That belief, gospel, comes before our works, godliness. 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:18.799 Because it's belief that defines and drives our works. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:25.599 You see, putting our works before our faith, it's like trying to drive a car through a wooded forest. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:31.279 Without a cut path, without the bulldozing work of the gospel. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:37.039 It will be impossible for us to ever reach our destination. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.519 Just gonna be constantly running into tree after tree after tree. 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:52.319 Remember, when Paul made the charge to rightly handle the gospel, he's using the language of cutting a path toward godliness. 00:20:53.039 --> 00:21:00.400 Because the message is what establishes the righteous road for us to live. 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:06.640 So our work, our charge is to get the gospel right. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:14.480 Because if we handle it rightly, the lives of those who hear will follow in its path. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:26.799 So if we desire for people to live godly lives, then church, we must have preached, be preaching, and continue to preach the good gospel. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:32.000 Because it is that gospel which leads to godliness. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:55.519 But many of us, we wonder why when we survey the landscape of the church today, and we observe the lives of those who claim the name of Christ, it seems like there are so many who are straying from the godliness that the gospel calls us to and establishes for us. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:58.559 And here's what I want to submit this morning to you. 00:21:59.119 --> 00:21:59.680 I believe. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:16.079 That's a prominent reason is because, like the men Paul called out in this passage, we have many proclaiming an overrealized aspect of the gospel that's causing many to stray. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:17.920 Let me work through this for just a moment. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.680 What we talk about, an overrealized aspect of the gospel. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:30.319 As Paul critiques these men, to the best of our knowledge and awareness, they got the most of the gospel right. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:37.200 But they over-emphasized or over-realized the resurrection. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:40.480 See, we have this tendency to be impatient people. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:46.960 And we don't like living in the natural gospel tension of the already not yet. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:23:00.240 We get tastes, we get aspects of the truths and promises of the gospel here and now in this life, but there's a future glory that awaits us. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:04.720 There's promises yet to be fulfilled and realized in our lives. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:16.240 And what we do is we get impatient, so we strive in our own work to try and bring the fullness of these promises to bear in this life. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:22.559 And so we have this pattern where we overemphasize aspects of the gospel. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:34.079 I'm going to hopefully prove if I've done good work at all this week the ways in which that actually leads to ungodliness within the church. 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:58.960 When we over-realize an aspect of the gospel, we believe that the promises or realities of the kingdom of God are fully or exclusively available in this present life rather than being partially experienced now with their fullness still to come. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:03.440 We are unsatisfied with the already not yet nature of the gospel. 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:08.240 And so here are four ways in which I hope to show this to you this morning. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:10.720 Number one is over-realized grace. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:16.400 Over-realized grace, also known as hyper grace or cheap grace. 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:37.119 It overrealizes the nature of grace by placing an extreme emphasis on the gospel's promise of unconditional forgiveness and acceptance by God to the point where it actually downplays or even outright dismisses repentance, accountability, transformation, and obedience. 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:46.640 Overrealized grace spins this beautiful truth of God's radical grace for us, his steadfast love. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:25:04.400 And it spins it into something that at its very edges begins to erode and fall apart as it dismisses the necessity of a transformed life where sin is actually cast off and righteousness is embraced. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:10.880 Maybe you know many who have a gospel of an overrealized grace. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:14.960 And you're wondering where the transformation in their life is. 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:19.119 What about overrealized inclusivity? 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:22.559 We love to use this buzzword of inclusive. 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:37.839 And we've taken the love of God and the inclusion of God, which is beyond our own comprehension, and we've so focused in on it that we have made it into something it was never meant to be. 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:46.720 You see, this takes something true and beautiful about the gospel, the radically inclusive whosoever nature of Jesus' calling. 00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:51.440 Whosoever would believe in me may be saved. 00:25:55.519 --> 00:26:01.680 But we isolate it to where it becomes the sole way that we see and understand the gospel itself. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:08.559 You see, there's another side of Jesus' radical inclusivity, and it's his radical exclusivity. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:12.960 Fully realized in the establishment of his eternal kingdom. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:16.799 The gospel call today in this life is inclusive. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:29.279 Whosoever will believe, but his coming kingdom is exclusive, as it will eternally keep all those who are his, and it will eternally cast out all those who are not. 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:33.759 What about an overrealized eschatology? 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:36.960 Sorry for using a big theological word there. 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:38.799 In times, it just flowed well. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:39.359 I don't know. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:40.559 Christ's return. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:42.400 What does Christ's return do? 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:50.240 Christ's return promises that his righteous justice will be executed throughout the earth. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:27:02.480 But many of us have an overrealized emphasis on this aspect of the gospel, and we work to bring his justice to full bear in the world today through our own strength and striving. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:26.160 And I would submit that this is predominantly seen in Christians being drawn out to either side of the political spectrum as they become convinced that being rooted there, whether on the right or on the left, will benefit the ends of which they are working for, establishing and executing the fullness of God's justice here and now. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.400 What about overrealized health and prosperity? 00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:42.480 Like the others, this overrealization takes something that is promised in full in the future, and it strives to have it in full here and now. 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.319 One day we will be absent from any suffering. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:51.680 We will be perfectly healthy and whole in the presence of Jesus in glory. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:57.359 We will reign with him, having all of creation subject under our feet. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:02.960 But in this life, we're only going to get tastes of that at best. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:10.880 You see, when we have an over-realization of health and prosperity, we undermine the gospel's call to suffering. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:19.200 And we place the focus of gain on earthly treasures rather than seeing Christ as the eternal gain of our souls. 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:22.079 The treasure to be obtained is Him. 00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:25.680 You see a pattern here? 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:34.799 What we like to do in our human minds is we like to view the gospel in this either or lens, and it doesn't work. 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:42.799 It robs it of all of its beauty, truth, and goodness because the gospel is both and. 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:47.279 Because God is both and. 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:10.400 A godliness that is utterly dependent on the grace of the gospel that it gives to us. 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:24.079 Now, while we may struggle to know who truly belongs to Jesus, and I bet you many in this room may even at times wrestle with your own belonging. 00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:34.880 I want to encourage us to know that our ultimate hope is not in what we're able to observe in the life of others or even able to experience in our own life. 00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:39.279 Our ultimate hope is that Jesus knows who are his. 00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:47.039 Because Jesus knows who are his, and he makes them known by their gospel and godliness. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:49.200 Let's look at verse 19 together. 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:56.079 So Paul just worked to show how these two men have swerved from the truth, leading people astray to ungodliness. 00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:56.799 What's his result? 00:32:57.119 --> 00:32:57.920 Verse 19. 00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:05.119 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, the Lord knows who are his. 00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:11.119 And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:27.759 Look, no matter how men may overrealize aspects of the gospel and swerve from the truth, the good gospel of Jesus, the foundation of his true and beautiful church, shall stand. 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:32.880 So we just sang about in a mighty fortress is our God. 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:38.559 That his gospel will stand forever. 00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:48.480 Because as we said just a few weeks ago, as we were in the first chapter of 2 Timothy, Jesus guards the gospel. 00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:54.559 Do we see this both and nature even in our own lives? 00:33:55.039 --> 00:34:01.440 The call to guard the gospel and the hope and truth that Jesus guards it himself. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:12.960 The call to walk the road of godliness and the beautiful truth that that road will be so carved and kept by the sovereignty of God that even a fool like me can't stray off of it. 00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:19.599 The human effort and the sovereignty of God are not at war with one another. 00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:29.360 But in somehow, in this mysterious, beautiful tapestry, they work synergistically to the ultimate good and glory of God. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:35.920 You see, Jesus intimately knows his church. 00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:43.119 The church that man is unable to see and observe with their own eyes, but Jesus sees it. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:48.880 And he sees it without even a measure of doubt or uncertainty. 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:53.920 You see, Jesus knows who are his. 00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:34.559 This is all throughout the scriptures. 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:37.920 This is even magnified with inside the New Testament. 00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:44.800 How will we know who are his by the gospel they put their hope in and the godliness that they live out? 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:50.400 This is how we're able to know. 00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:57.440 Because we proclaim his message and we are transformed to his person. 00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:04.559 Remember, the message makes the hearer. 00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:11.920 So we can have confidence that we are his as the good gospel leads us to godliness. 00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:15.920 So my prayer for us as this church is that we be known by both. 00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:29.119 If we're going to be known by something with inside of the culture we find ourselves in, may we be known by both our gospel and godliness. 00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:30.639 Verse 20. 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:47.519 Now in a great house, the church, the visible church as man is able to see it, now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable use. 00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:59.119 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:18.559 So, in case we're tempted to think that Paul's flipping the script on us, and he's trying to tell us to get out all of the sin and all of the bad deeds and all of these impurities from our life as far as it's focused on our works, we would be misled. 00:37:18.719 --> 00:37:19.920 That's not what Paul's doing. 00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:39.440 What he's urging us to do is purge from within us anything that is not of the good gospel, any message that we have believed or embraced that would be swerving from the truth of God, that would cause us to stray from the godliness of which he calls us to. 00:37:39.599 --> 00:37:43.280 Paul is not now trying to put works before the message. 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:50.639 He continues steadfast in this redemptive pattern that the gospel comes before our works. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:57.920 You see, my hope is that we want to be known as vessels for the honor of the Master. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:04.480 We desire to be set apart as holy for the good gospel work that He has called us to. 00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:07.280 So, what must we do? 00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:12.159 We must cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable. 00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:16.480 We must start with working to get the gospel right. 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:20.480 And so, church, let us work to that end. 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:31.840 Let us work to root out the messages that has caused us to swerve from the truth, and let us be filled with the hope of the gospel of Jesus. 00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:39.599 For when we do, the promise is that we will live out the godliness we have been called to. 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:44.480 And you and I will be ready for every good work. 00:38:44.800 --> 00:38:45.440 Amen.