2 Timothy 3:8-17 - Follow Paul's Example and Trust Scripture

Tom Shrader examines 2 Timothy 3:8-17, contrasting the characteristics of godless people in the last days with Paul's model of faithful ministry. He emphasizes that Paul calls Timothy to follow his teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and perseverance through persecution. Shrader explains that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching what's right, reproving what's wrong, correcting how to get right, and training how to stay right, serving as our moral compass in a confused world.

“For the Christian, there is no secular and sacred. There's only sacred.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2000)

Recorded: 2000

Duration: 43 min

Themes: scripture, example, faithfulness, persecution, patience, teaching, character, endurance, pastor, mentor, bible study leader, facing persecution, new believer, struggling with doubt, teaching others, young adult

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:8-17, 2 Timothy 3:10, 2 Timothy 3:12, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Matthew 18, Acts 13, Acts 14, Acts 7

Theological Themes: biblical authority, scripture inspiration, pastoral ministry, biblical inerrancy, christian conduct, spiritual mentorship, apostolic example, biblical sufficiency

Full Transcript

This is the fifth week of six weeks that we'll spend doing something a little bit different. It's what we do every week in a church setting, and it's what we do in here some of the time, but not all the time—a verse-by-verse study. It's to remind you of the extraordinary power of having this Word, having it in your hand, seeing it, marking it up, and being involved in it.

Let me say something, because somebody came up the other day and said, "You know, in preparation for this, I read that passage, read that passage, read that passage, and I didn't get anything out of it even close to that." So let me just say this: You can, but you've got to work at it, and that's the point. You're going to have to be engaged in getting the proper tools. That means having a good study Bible. It means having a good commentary that you're using, having a concordance and some dictionary. And you're going to work. I mean, you've got to work just as hard as you would—I was talking to somebody the other day that was going to real estate school, and he was talking about how much work it was. And by the way, if the schools work for you, you're in real trouble! About how much work the school was. And my point is, that's what this is. This takes some work. It takes some effort, but it's in their mining. It's in their getting the... But you can do this. Trust me, you're smarter than I am, and you can do this. I know you can. All you've got to do is put a little effort into it.

Understanding the Letter Format

So 2 Timothy 3, verse 10. Now, one of the challenges of what we do is we need to remember this is a letter, not a book. We say the book of 2 Timothy, but it's really a letter. And I don't think ever in my life I've gotten a letter where I read a paragraph, took a week off, read a paragraph, took a week off, read a paragraph, took a week off. When you do that, you lose the flow. We're reading a letter, and we start, stop, and start, and stop. So we need to remind you of context, and nothing would drive that home quicker than the fact that the very first word of the 10th verse is "but." That tells us we need to have some sense of what happened before, or we're never going to understand what He's doing now. He's obviously painting for us a contrast.

Again, it's what I'm saying to you: as you read and as you study, there's just certain things when you see words like "but," or "however," or "therefore." Whenever you see the "therefore," you ask, "Why is the there therefore? What's the point here?" And you see they're connecting.

Reviewing the End Times Character

Well, what he was talking about last week was end times—not last days in the sense of there'll be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and all this stuff, but He's saying here's what the people are going to be like. Let me remind you, because it's so important. He said there'll be lovers of self. They will be consumed with themselves. Their worldview is this: Their worldview is here they are, and here's everything else circling around them. They're the center of not just their universe, but the universe. Everything exists on this planet exists for their disposal to make them happy.

Hard to deal with people like that, isn't it? Hard to be married to a person like that, isn't it? Hard to work with a person like that. How about to live? How about to live in a society where you have 280 million of them like that?

There'll be lovers of self, then there'll be lovers of money. They'll just want to accumulate stuff. Material things matter to them. They care not about the things which are unseen, that are permanent. They care about the things that are seen, that are temporal—the reversal of what Paul says in his life. All of a sudden, they care about their stuff.

The Manifestation of Self-Love

Now, this exhibits itself in that they're boastful, loud. When they come into a room, they just consume all the oxygen in the air as they begin to boast and sing, and they're arrogant. We say that's more of an attitude. And then a whole series of things. They're disobedient to parents. They're revilers. They're ungrateful. They think they did it all themselves. They're unholy. They're unloving. That's really a key word in this whole progression here. It means literally that they have unnatural affections. The things that they should love, they hate. The things that they should hate, they love.

Not only that, and so we look around. We see that with nothing. It seems to me that there's no more natural affection on the planet than a mother—even more than a father—than a mother for her baby. That's one of the most natural sources of affection you see. And yet every year in this country—forget around the world—in this country, 1.5 million mothers kill their babies every year. That's an unnatural act. And we don't say that, by the way, if you happen to be here and you go, "Oh, man, I don't need this aggravation." We don't say that in a cold, unloving way. We just say that's the truth of this issue. The series that we just finished on sex—there's a tape in there just on abortion and that issue alone. And what does that mean? What's that done to us? What's it done to us as a nation? What's it done to us as a people?

The Complete Picture of Last Days Character

They're not just unloving. They're irreconcilable. They don't want to forgive. They don't want to be forgiven. Don't even care. They're malicious gossips. They gossip just to destroy each other. They don't have self-control. They're brutal. They hate what's good. They're treacherous. They're reckless. They're conceited. They love pleasure.

Now, get this. They love pleasure rather than love God. Make sure we get this now. It's not that they love pleasure more than they love God. They love pleasure instead of loving God. It's that in this world, in the last days, there'll be people that'll be lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure. And those loves, that affection that they have—

for themselves and the money and the pleasure, will exceed their affection and replace their affection for God. So you mean they're unspiritual people? No. Look at verse 5, and then we've got to move on. They will hold to a form of godliness, but they will deny its power.

These are godly, ungodly people. Godly small g. These are people who still tip their hat to God, but not to the one true God. They'll deny its power. What's the power? The power that we have is the person of Jesus Christ. That's the only power that we have.

I watched a little bit. Tony Robbins was on the other night, and he's doing his thing, unleashing the... I've had several people say, "You know, he says some pretty good things." I imagine he does. Everybody ultimately says something good. I presume there are good things and that there's a lot of things that can get you started. But the fundamental deal of unlocking the giant... There is no giant within you.

The Truth About Human Nature

Inside of you is a heart that's hard toward God in its natural form, that hates God and loves sin. It's not "I can do anything." It's "I will do what I want," and what that is is sin. That's the distinction. And that's the world you live in.

You'll have a plethora of information about spiritual things. You'll have conversations with God via best-selling book. You'll have all these sorts of things. But they're not the true God. That's what Paul's saying. They love this stuff instead of loving God. But they hold to a form of godliness. But that form of godliness will exclude the person of Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection.

Follow Paul's Example

Now to the verse in front of us, verse 10. He said, "But." Instead of that, he now speaks to Timothy. He speaks again, let's be clear here, to Timothy as a pastor. But the principle is true for us as well. He speaks to us. He says, "But you follow my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, my persecution and my suffering."

He says, "But you follow." Key word here. The word follow doesn't just mean kind of move in the same direction. The word follow means retrace my steps. Go in exactly the path that I've been in. Boy, is that an arrogant thing? Can you imagine me standing up here and saying, "You just do everything I do, you'll be okay." Which, by the way, is not a bad idea, frankly, now that I think about it. It would help a lot of things. Everything would be easier.

But the idea is this. He's saying, "You follow me as I follow Christ." The word means literally...

Walking in the Footsteps

My father's here this morning. He's been here almost every week in January, February, March. But there was a day, and I couldn't tell you what time of the year or what specific month it was. But I was probably about 12 or 13, and there was an early morning that we had someplace we needed to go. It had snowed the night before. He got me up, and he said, "Okay, we've got to go."

There's a street, Locust Street. Locust Street is a very busy street. There's just traffic on it. For our town, it's a very, very busy street. We're there at about 6:15 in the morning. There's no one, not a car there. The snow is just deep. I just can't possibly, I'm trying to keep up and walk along. Finally, my dad said, "Just walk where I walk." The snow is up to our knees, thighs. He said, "Just put your feet right where I've been."

All of a sudden, I remember coming behind him, walking down the street, and all I had to do was just go exactly where he went. While it was not easy, it was much easier. That's the word literally. Retrace my steps.

Following Paul's Complete Example

Here's what he says. "I want you to follow my conduct." That means my life view. "I want you to see this exactly as I see it. I want you to have a life view exactly as I have." Before that, he said, "Follow my teaching. Follow the body of what I say to be true."

I want you to follow my teaching. I want you to follow my conduct. I want you to follow my purpose. Paul had a purpose in life. Now, we live in a time where we have recognized, individually, and certainly corporations, for example, have recognized, the importance of having a purpose. Why are we here? Why do we exist? What do we do?

Even at a church, at our church, here's the purpose statement: To help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives. By that, we mean we are in this process together. I may indeed have a process in the front where I get to teach, but that's not the only place that learning takes place. In fact, that may be the most ineffective form of learning.

One of our core values is people grow best in a small group setting. Not just small groups, but in a small group setting, where we can help one another. Where you can go through issues in life, and I can be there to encourage you, and you can encourage me. People grow best in a small group setting. Our purpose is to help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives.

Purpose vs. Goals

Everywhere I go, that's one of the things that's so important to me. Same thing with priority living. To teach businessmen and women the timeless Word of God in a contemporary context. With the idea that we will see biblical life change. There ought to be change.

What's the purpose in Paul's life? Not the goals. Let me give you a real quick session here. I think you know this. A goal is different than a purpose. A purpose is something that extends beyond our life itself. A purpose is something that we never achieve. It provides the overarching structure for the rest of our life. Goals are little milestones that are achievable, that we accomplish on the way toward our purpose.

If I say to you, "I want to read through the Bible in a year," is that a goal or a purpose? It's a goal. If I say to you, "I want to love God with all my heart," goal or purpose? Purpose.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:9, "Here really is my purpose. My purpose in all that I do is to please God. My purpose in everything that I do is to please Him." Jesus said, here's His advice to us, that in our lives we should seek first His kingdom. And then all these other things would be added to us.

The word "seek" there means exerting effort in a diligent fashion toward achieving something, toward a task. We are to work. We are to seek first His kingdom. In the Greek, the word translated there "first" is protos. It doesn't mean first in a sequential fashion. It means preeminently dominant. It doesn't mean first, and then there's second, third, fourth, or fifth. It means this thing is what covers everything else.

Every once in a while, somebody will say, "Well, my priorities in life are God first, and then my family, then my church, then my work, then my Bible study. What do you think of that, Tom? Is that a good thing?" No, it isn't. Here's the problem with that. When I think this way, now grab this—this is a big deal—when I think that way and I go "God first," then once I'm done with the God stuff, I check it off and go to the next deal.

What Paul's saying to us is "my purpose is to please God." What Jesus is saying is "I seek first His kingdom," and I seek first His kingdom by having my relationship with Him permeate everything in my life. When I come to my relationship with Susan, my top priority in life is Susan. She's more important than the kids. They're 18 and 20. They're out of here before long. She's number one. There's nothing else. She's the most important thing to me. In that relationship with her, the most important thing in that relationship with her is my relationship with the Lord, her relationship with the Lord, and how that affects us as we love and care for one another. Everything with Him permeates everything else.

No Division Between Sacred and Secular

This is a huge issue, and it really plays out for those of you that are involved in career, those of you that are working. It's so important for you to understand this principle. A lot of you like to write stuff down. If you're going to ever write anything down, write this down. Remember this: For the Christian, there is no secular and sacred. There's only sacred.

Some of you have the view that when you go to work, that's the secular stuff that we've got to endure. When you go to work, it's just as sacred as going to church. I have to understand this. If you don't, here's what happens. As you grow in the Lord, you'll begin to despise your work. You'll see your work as coming between you and God.

That's why you see so many guys that say, and women as well, "I want to get out of this thing. I want to stop this thing." You'll see guys say, "I need to go to seminary. This is the highest calling I can possibly have. I need to get out of this and go to work in a Christian mission field or go to work for Young Life or Crisis Pregnancy Center or Campus Crusade or something like that." Because that somehow is better than working at IBM. It isn't. Both are sacred.

God's Strategic Placement in the Marketplace

God has strategically placed you, many of you, in a corporate setting or a business setting for the distinct purpose of delivering the gospel message and maybe never in word but certainly in deed, delivering the gospel message to a lost world. We sit around as Christians and whine and moan and groan and complain about everything around us—"the world stinks and the world is awful and the world is lost." We need to go and fix the world, and then we get the church all worked up about this, and now they come up with some strategic planning meeting which generates a strategic plan which takes up space in a drawer which then is designed for us to infiltrate the marketplace.

Let me help you out here. We already infiltrated the marketplace. We already did it. You take a place like Scottsdale Bible—Scottsdale Bible has got a billion people, many of them very significant players in the marketplace. You've got the North Phoenix Baptist Church, we've got churches all over the place. They come in there on Sunday, but Monday through Friday and Saturday they're in the world. We've already penetrated the world.

The issue here is not for us to come up with new strategies to penetrate it, but to live like salt and light where God's placed us. We ought to be very, very concerned about leaving that world. This is one of those rare times where I have to say to you, do as I say, not as I did, because I did leave. I did leave to do this. But I do think that the vast majority of people ought to stay where God's placed them.

Even this whole idea that we have of halftime—as great as that is, to say that I'm going to work and do all this and that I'll be significant in the second part of my life—undermines the idea that the first part of your life is significant. I don't just go to work to make a living, to buy stuff. I am there. This is a historic thought that the Christian community had, that work was significant, that what we did is significant, that our employment base is significant, because we bring to it the person of Christ, a person indwelt by the Holy Spirit, to do work there.

Your Strategic Position and Influence

God strategically placed you. Some of you—listen—He's given you very much. You own businesses. You're in middle to upper management of corporations. God strategically placed you there. He expects you to be salt and light there. That doesn't mean you've got to wear an "I Love Jesus" button everywhere you go.

Christian sports guys win a tournament or do something, and they say, "I'm just grateful and thank everybody." And people respond, "I don't understand why. What a sellout. He didn't thank Jesus." Well, when's the last time you got your top salesperson award and you stood up in your office and said, "I want to thank Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior"? Maybe you do. If you do, great. I've got no problem with that. But the most important thing we need to do is to live this life and proclaim that truth and be salt and light where He's placed you.

He says, "I want you to follow my purpose, my faith, what I believe. I want you to be as faithful as I have been." Now we're going to take three words together in this sequence: patience, love, and perseverance. He said, "I want you to follow me in my patience. I want you to follow me in my love. I want you to follow me in perseverance."

Patience and Perseverance Through Aggravation

I want to take the two words on the outside first. Patience is tolerating aggravating people. Perseverance is tolerating aggravating circumstances. Wherever you are in this world, as long as you're breathing and moving, you are going to face aggravation.

I'm driving here this morning, coming up in the middle lane, and we're slowing down. I'm thinking, "I do not understand why people who are going to drive slow don't get in the middle lane so we can move." As I'm driving up, all of a sudden I recognize something: a Buick with a North Dakota plate. This is a problem. The only way it can get worse is a Chevy in Nebraska. A GM product and a Midwest license plate is not something that's going to move traffic along this time of year down here. And we know that instinctively.

Are those aggravations? Yeah, they're aggravations. Are those big things? No. God wants to develop in you patience and perseverance, and the way He's going to do it is to put you in aggravating circumstances with aggravating people.

Love Makes the Difference

You can blow all the smoke about what a loving person you are, how God has changed your life and you're loving. You don't really know if you're loving until He brings alongside of you someone who's unlovable. Then we'll find out how loving you are. "I can really persevere. I can hang in there." Well, that's incredible. Your manicurist got sick and you had to reschedule getting your nails done. Man, you're really suffering now. That's not what we're talking about. When you're dealing with a kid that's out of control or a spouse, that's different.

Well, how can I do that? I've got aggravating people and aggravating circumstances. How can I do it? The answer He puts right in the middle: love. I've got patience. I've got perseverance. How am I going to get there? Love.

The fruit of the Spirit is—and there's an interesting grammatical change here—is, and then He lists nine pieces of fruit. We would technically say the fruits of the Spirit are, but that's not what He says. The fruit of the Spirit is. They come as a bunch, they come as a package, and they lead with love. Love is the thing that makes all of these things work, and that loving heart is a transformed heart.

The Source of Our Endurance

He said, "I want you to understand that in my life I've had aggravating people. In my life I've had to persevere, and it's love." What love? It's the love that I have for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the love that I have for Christ that allows me to endure and persevere all things. My desire simply is to please Him.

Remember, see how it comes together? My purpose simply is to please Him. How do I please God? One simple word: I obey Him. I do whatever He says. The things that the Scripture says do, I do. The things the Scripture says avoid, I avoid. And now I've pleased God. Pleasing God is more important than even the results that it produces in my life. It's to please Him. What pleases Him? It's when I do what He tells me to do. That's why we do what's right. We do what's right because God has told us to do it. Sometimes it's as simple as that.

Paul's Persecutions

Let's finish this list and then we'll make the point and close. "I want you to follow my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, with love, perseverance, persecution, as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecution I endured."

As God and His providence would have it, that's exactly the passage that I taught last Sunday in church. In Acts chapter 13 and Acts chapter 14 is where you see Paul's trip to Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. He goes into Antioch with Barnabas. He begins to preach. People begin to respond. The Jews run him out of town. They stir the people up against him and they run him out of town.

He moves in a southeast direction from Antioch, 80 miles. He arrives at Iconium. In Iconium he goes to the synagogue. He preaches, and the Jews who disbelieved embittered the minds of the Gentiles against the believers. The word "disbelieved" means literally disobeyed. They disobeyed God. When I disbelieve who Christ is, I'm disobedient.

The Call to Follow Christ

We have this in our evangelism when we call invitation, right? We invite people to Christ. That's not really what Christ did. Christ called people to Himself in a command form. "Come." It was imperative. "Come. Follow me. Come." He didn't say, "Well, mull this over. Think about this for a while. Go home and pray about it and think about it." He

Paul's Suffering at the Hands of Unbelievers

The word "disobedient" that Paul uses carries deeper meaning than we might initially think. It can mean to disbelieve, and if you disbelieve, you're disobedient. Another related word appears in Acts 14:3 - "embittered" - which means to poison. At Iconium, the Jews came together and the disobedient Jews poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the believers. This poisoning was so effective that a plot was hatched at Iconium to stone Paul and Barnabas.

Paul heads out of town and travels about 18 miles to Lystra. At Lystra they begin to preach, and the text tells us that the Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrive at Lystra. They stir the people up, and then they stone Paul.

When we think of stoning, we might think of throwing rocks at someone. But that's not what happened. In Acts 7, they martyred Stephen by stoning him. Here's what they do: there are witnesses that proclaim against him, and those witnesses begin the stoning. Typically, they would take the victim and put them 5, 6, 7, 8, or 10 feet down below them. Then they would start to pick up the largest stones they could - mini boulders if you will - and begin to barrage, just rain down boulders on this person. It's a form of capital punishment designed to kill them, not to hurt them. We know the Jews were involved because it was their form of capital punishment used against blasphemy.

At Lystra, the book of Acts tells us that they stoned Paul. They dragged him out to the edge of town, thinking he was dead. He isn't. He gets up, goes back into the city, and the next day goes to Derbe.

The Promise of Persecution for Believers

This background should be helpful in understanding the passage in front of us. Paul says, "I want you to follow me in all these things, including my persecution and my suffering." For verse 12 says, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

If you are one who lives in Christ Jesus - that means Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior - if you are one who desires to live that way, then what you need to understand is you will be persecuted. You will suffer. That's going to have all sorts of different variations as it plays itself out.

Next time you're on the internet, type in www.persecutedchurch.org and let that come up for you. Get some sense of what's happening to your brothers and sisters around the world. I'm going to pull this number out of the air, but I think it's pretty close to true. During the time of Nero, during the time of the persecution in Rome of the Christians, there was somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 Christians killed. Something like that. Right now, there are 250,000 Christians being killed every year - ten times more than that - for their faith.

Modern Persecution and Western Comfort

It is not at all uncommon for men and women to face severe persecution today. We just got an email from some guys the other day that are working in one of the nations where they are being persecuted. They said persecutors burst into a house down the street during a time of Bible study. This is a common occurrence. They confirmed that indeed these people believed, then took them down and beat them. What they do is they just cut their hands off - for their faith.

Now, we experience nothing like that, but we still suffer. There is still a level of persecution for the faith. Who knows? Maybe it will get intense, and it will be good. Probably a little dose of persecution would probably be really good for the church in America. But the worst thing we can think of is losing our tax-exempt status. That's about as bad as we get. A good dose of suffering, I think, would help us.

We do best, I think, in times of suffering. We don't grow well when things are good. Or I don't. I need a little hardship, don't you? To say, "Hey, remember this?" That's why I say I think the church in America - I'm not sure, but I think we're in for tough times. I think we're in for incredible economic times. Most of you in here have been aware of that, and you see that, you understand that. The poorest person in this room is in the top 5% of net wealth within the context of the world. We don't do particularly well there most of the time.

When somebody says, "I just came to the study the other day for the first time," I'll ask, "What made you come?" Almost always it's some variation of "My life finally got to a point where I just couldn't handle it anymore. All of a sudden, the circumstances in my life reached a point where I knew that I had to be honest with myself and say, I couldn't pull this off anymore. And I'm here looking for help." Now, what they look for is help circumstantially. What they need is a converted heart. But it's that suffering that frequently works well. Paul said, "I want you to join me in this."

The Sufficiency and Purpose of Scripture

Now, verse 16: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work." What Paul talks about now is the Bible. He's talking to Timothy. Make sure we understand the context. He's told Timothy, "I want you to pass these things on."

What he's saying to Timothy, now as a pastor - again, the principles are important for us - is "Timothy, I want you to understand something. You've got in front of you the Word of God. And the Word of God is good for four things: it's good for teaching and reproof, correction and training in righteousness."

Here's what we say, and many of you have been through this: It's good for teaching - it tells us what's right. It's good for reproof - it tells us what's not right. It's good for correction - it tells us how to get right. It's good for training - it tells us how to stay right. So the Bible tells me what's right, what's not right, how to get right, and how to stay right.

The Word of God as Our Spiritual Compass

I was at a men's conference a couple of years ago. Opening night, before I got up to speak, I said, "Okay, everybody stand up." So we had everybody stand up. I said, "I'm going to count to three. When I count to three, I want you all to point to true north." Now, we had wound through the mountains and done some other things to get there. Once we got to the campsite, we were moving through. So, as you can imagine, he went, "One, two, three." There are guys poking each other in the shoulders and the eyes, going, "I don't know, I don't know."

He said, "Okay, when you came in, I gave you an envelope. I want you to open that envelope. Now, take that thing that you've got in that envelope, hold your hand in front of you, put it in that hand. I'm going to count to three. When I count to three, I want to duplicate the exercise. I want you all to point to true north." And he goes, "Okay, one, two, three." All hands went in the same direction.

As you well know, what he had put in their hand was a compass. He said, "Now with this compass, now with this direction, we're on the same page. We know where true north is. I can figure out east and west and south and all these other things. I can navigate because I know where true north is."

Here's what Paul says to us. In our life, when I put the Word of God in my hand, I know spiritual true north. When I've got the Word of God in my hand, in a generation, at a time, in a culture that's lost its moral compass, you can hardly get anybody to say, "Well, that's right or that's wrong or I don't agree."

The Necessity of Righteous Judgment

In fact, maybe you've even had the experience of saying to somebody, "I think what you're doing is wrong." Boy, do they hate that. "What do you mean you think it's wrong? Who made you king? Who are you to judge me?" Well, this is really important to understand. Are we supposed to judge? You bet. But we're supposed to judge without being judgmental. But how do you judge? Well, you judge because of what God said. That's so clear.

Matthew 18 talks about dealing with sin in another person's life. How am I going to deal with sin in another person's life if I don't judge their life? Now, there's some precaution here. Jesus says before you pick the speck out of somebody else's eye, get the log out of yours. That's a great word picture. You can close your eyes and see it. You can see yourself when you see somebody and you're just getting ready to judge them. Close your eyes and imagine this gigantic plank coming out of your eye.

Oftentimes, the speck, and the idea there was a speck of wood, oftentimes the speck that you see in somebody else's eye is a chip out of a log in yours. In other words, that the sin that you're so fond of and you do so well, you pick out so perfectly in others. There's a little problem there. But He says, "Listen, I want you to be nonjudgmental judging people." How do you judge? Well, you judge based on the moral compass.

Four Purposes of God's Word

The Word of God is good for four things. It tells us what's right. It's good for teaching. The word there means not the process, but the material. When we come to teaching, whatever it is, whether it's dealing with kids or dealing in business or dealing with leadership or whatever the issue is, I come and I come from this material. Here's what God says about it.

It's not just good for teaching, it's good for reproof. That word means literally to rebuke somebody. The idea there is to rebuke them for either their teaching or their conduct. To confront somebody. Again, to confront them on the basis that God has given us the truth.

Real simple. So you've got somebody that's involved in adultery. You have not just every right, you have an obligation to go to them and say, "What you're doing is wrong." It's Matthew 18. I go to them and I say, "What you're doing is wrong."

The Proper Context for Biblical Confrontation

Let me add this: the context there is if the person says they're a Christian. We sometimes get so mad at pagans for acting like pagans. They're pagans. Why wouldn't you expect them to be shacking up and messing around and stealing and doing it? Why wouldn't you expect that? Didn't you do that? Didn't you do that before you were converted? Weren't you involved in all those things? You bet you were. And now you're so high and mighty and righteous that you look down at the pagan for doing what you did.

That's not what judging is about. That's not what Matthew 18 is about. Matthew 18 is about one believer to another believer. If you say you're a believer, you're involved in adultery, then I'm to go to you and say, "Listen, I hear this is what's going on. Is that what's going on?" "Yep." "Well, by God's Word, you're to stop it." If they say that's it, then you're done. If not, then two of you go to somebody who professes to a believer. If not, you take it to the church. And now the church has to deal with it.

The Consequences of Avoiding Church Discipline

One of the problems in the church today, we don't deal with this sin. I was talking to a guy not long ago, and he said, "My church is in the toilet. My church is heading south. My church is a mess." And I said, "Why? Why do you think?" And he listed a bunch of things. And I said, "But why do you think all that took place?" He said, "I'll tell you what I think. Years ago, we had key leadership people that were involved in sin. And we didn't do anything about it. And what's happened now is we've institutionalized compromise."

The church has to be an uncompromised body. That, by the way, this has nothing to do with the lesson. This is a freebie. That's why Christians are always going to struggle in politics. The nature of politics is compromise. The essence of our Christian faith is to never compromise. So you can't put those two together. You might as well put loser by your candidate. The essence of politics is compromise. The essence of our faith, in terms of living itself out, is to be uncompromised.

It's good for training, for

Rebuke is good for correction. The word for correction only appears once in the New Testament, and it means to straighten up or to lift up. In other words, our point in rebuking somebody is not to beat them down and make them feel like dirt. Our point in rebuking sin and rebuking an individual is to lift them up, to restore that person, to understand that we are all sinners saved by grace.

Then Scripture is for training in righteousness. That idea of training in righteousness is to be prepared for right living. Here's the preventative stuff. Here's the teaching. Here's the rebuke. Here's how we correct you. Here's how you fix that. But you don't need to go through this every day.

The Consequences of Disobedience

Some of you in this life notice how the inevitable circumstances of life affect you differently. Some of you have noticed how you don't have a lot of problems that a lot of other Christians do. You know why? Because a lot of the problems that Christians face are the result of sin.

I've got people - this is really interesting - we'll get a lot of people where a husband will come in, or a wife will come in, and they'll say, "You know what? My wife and I, my husband and I, we just don't get along," and then you fill in the blanks. And in fact, he or she won't even come to church. They don't even care about spiritual things.

You know what I'll ask? I'll ask, "How did you end up getting married?" Sometimes what you have is a person that's come to Christ. But you know what I hear most often? "Well, I thought when I married them they'd change. I knew they weren't a Christian, but I thought if I married them..."

Listen. If you're a Christian, and you're single, and you're going to get married, and you marry a non-Christian, you should assume a life of hell. You should assume that you're going to have problems because you're on two different pages. God in His grace may indeed save that other person. But most of the people that come in with difficult situations - most of the time, the situations result from disobedience.

Equipped for Every Good Work

So it's training in righteousness. Why? So the man, the woman, the person of God is prepared and equipped for every good work.

Let me make this point. What do I have to do to go to heaven? Absolutely nothing. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Accept and respond to the gift of eternal life. Respond to that grace. We are not saved by any good work.

Many of you are involved in churches that say you've got to be good, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. God says none of that is going to save you. You are saved by grace through faith. There's nothing you can do. I don't care how good you think you are. God's Word says the requirement is perfect and you're not there.

We're saved by grace through faith. Isn't that correct? It's not a result of anything that we do. It's a gift from God. We are saved by grace through faith for good works.

The Purpose of Good Works

Are good works important? Absolutely. As a result of our salvation. They're not what save us. We're saved by grace through faith and now we're prepared for good works.

Paul says to Timothy, if you want to be equipped, if you want to be prepared for the good works - the life that God expects you to live - then you better understand the moral spiritual compass, the Scripture, the infallible Word of God.

I remember one time arguing with some guy who's a non-believer and I said, "The Bible's filled with errors." And he said, "Really? Can you find one?" You know what I had to admit? I never read it. I never read it. I just heard a bunch of guys sitting in a college class say the Bible's filled with errors. I thought, "Oh man, they're getting better grades than me. They must be right." Plus, you know what? That's a lot easier than investigating on your own.

Our Spiritual Compass

The Bible tells us what's right, what's not right, how to get right, how to stay right. And He said, "I've given you that so in this confusing world, you'll know spiritual true north."

Now, the last chapter we look at next week of this incredible letter of this apostle who is in the process of understanding that his life is almost over, writing to the person he loves most on this planet. And now, he closes. We look at it next week.

Father, please help us see this. Help us understand that in our life You have not left us as orphans, that we are Christians, meaning we are indwelt by Your Holy Spirit, and You've left with us an owner's manual for this life, this book, the Bible. We study it so that we would have Your mind. But we don't worship the Word of God. We worship the God of the Word. God, help us study this so we know how to live. Most importantly, so we know who You are. We pray to You this morning in Jesus' name, Amen.