CONSIDER THIS

2 Timothy 2:7-17 (KJV)

Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Let’s review a moment about 2 Timothy chapter two:

The Apostle Paul had given Timothy an instruction

2 Timothy 2:2 (KJV)

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

·   Paul had taught Timothy certain things

·   Timothy was to teach those things to others

·   Who would then teach them to others

It’s how we have those doctrines still today.

There have been, for more than two thousand years, people who have given their lives to teach and preach exactly what they were taught.

Paul said these were supposed to be faithful men. He identified in verses 3-6 what would be the marks of those faithful men:

·   Enduring hardness

·   Avoiding entanglements and

·   Striving lawfully

Having said that, Paul then takes a breath and says to his preacher boy, 2 Timothy 2:7

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

In other words, Timothy needs to do more than merely read these instructions –

·   He needs to consider them and

·   He needs the Lord to help him understand them

In order for each of you to get value from the messages that are preached here those same two things need to happen:

·   You need to actually think about what is said and

·   You need the Lord to enlighten you so you understand how to apply it to your own life

The truth is,

·   If you just sit there and endure the time, the message has been no help to you but

·   If all you get from the message is what you hear me say, you haven’t got much more.

What you need is what the Lord wants to give you through the message.

I might give an application for instance, that has very little to do with you, but in every piece of the Bible, there is an application for you, if you will receive it.

So

·   Listen carefully to me while I preach and

·   Listen carefully to the Holy Spirit as I preach

Consider which that Paul has said?

Obviously, everything.

But I think a case cane be made that, in this context, Timothy should consider what Paul has already said:

Regarding the characteristics of faithful men.[1]

And what Paul was about to say, especially in verses 8-15,

Go back to verse 2

2 Timothy 2:2 (KJV)

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

What I think we have in verses 8-17 is a rehearsal of those doctrinal lessons Timothy has heard from Paul.

*I. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

2 Timothy 2:8 (KJV)

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

This one truth separates Christianity from all religions of the world.

It is the reason Christianity is not a religion.

No other system of thought, spiritual or otherwise can claim anything remotely like the resurrection of Christ.

And there is so much evidence to prove His resurrection that the only way to deny it happened is to deny it by faith.

I do not believe Jesus rose from the grave by faith.

I believe by faith that His resurrection answers my sin debt.

But I do not have to believe He rose again by faith.

·   There are so many witnesses of His resurrection and

·   There is so much evidence of His resurrection

That the only way to deny it is to throw away all the evidence.

It would be like saying, “Well I don’t believe George Washington was our first president.”

It is an unquestioned fact.

·   There are witnesses of it

·   There are documents to attest to it

·   There was no one in his lifetime that questioned it

Same is true with the resurrection of Christ:

There were more than five hundred witnesses

·   Who saw Him more than a dozen times

·   Over the period of forty days

His resurrection was documented in the gospels, as well as by other writers[2] whose writings were not included in the Scriptures.

His resurrection was never

disproven, despite the fact that both the Jews and the Romans had compelling reasons to want to find the dead body of Jesus and prove his followers to be fakes.

There is nothing else in the world that compares to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

*II. SALVATION BY FAITH

2 Timothy 2:10-13 (KJV)

Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

A. That Paul says he is suffering for the elect’s sake,

I think, takes us to the book of Ephesians where he explains that he suffered because of preaching the doctrine that God had elected both Jews and Gentiles to come out of their old culture, get saved and then be united together in a local church.

B. That this is speaking of salvation by faith stems from the last phrase in

2 Timothy 2:11-13 (KJV)

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Whether we are saved or lost is through faith.

But whether we have that faith or not does not change the truth about Christ.

Timothy to you need seriously consider, and you will need the Lord’s help to understand the doctrines of

·   The resurrection of Christ and

·   The salvation through faith

The third doctrine Paul brings out is the

*III. SURITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

2 Timothy 2:9 (KJV)

Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

2 Timothy 2:14-15 (KJV)

Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I listened to a bit of a debate the other day.

A preacher had brought a message attempting to persuade people who grew up as Christians but had rejected the faith and

Another preacher was criticizing the message for what he considered to be some doctrinal issues.

The first preacher said, “If you have walked away from your faith because you have learned the Bible has mistakes, you were misled as to why you are a Christian.” He said, “We are not Christians because of what the Bible says, we are Christians because of the resurrection of Jesus.”

The other preacher said, “What? We are too Christians because of what the Bible says. How else would we know about the resurrection?”

I think the first preacher overstated his argument. It sounded something like, “So what if the Bible is wrong about Creation. So what if the Bible has some historical errors. So what if you can’t trust the Bible. You don’t have to trust the Bible. You only need to trust the Lord.”

·   I don’t think he meant to say we couldn’t trust the Bible.

·   I think he meant to say that we don’t worship the Bible.

So I think the other guy over reacted.

But he was right.

Everything we believe finds its authority right here, in the Bible.

And you can trust it.

There are plenty of people who will try to destroy it and to cast doubt upon it, but the devil has been doing that since the fall of Adam and Eve.

·   There are some things that seem difficult to explain.

·   There are some parts of the Bible we just have to accept by faith

·   There are questions that the worldly wise have raised that are hard to answer

But all of that is reconciled through study and rightly dividing the word of truth.

Conclusion

I have done my best to teach to you the Word of God today. And now I, as did Paul simply ask

·   That you consider what I have said and

·   That the Lord would help you to understand not just what I said but all the implications and lessons of it.

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[1] I have learned that it is not as easy as I at one time supposed to identify them.

[2] “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had  first come to love him did not cease.  He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.  And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” (- Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63
(Based on the translation of Louis H. Feldman, The Loeb Classical Library.), http://www.josephus.org/testimonium.htm, accessed 9-10-16