We've been going through 2 Timothy, it's the last book that Paul wrote. There's a beloved son in the faith, and a couple of significant words are, today, but you. Timothy's life and the Christian's life is to be a contrast to what goes on, and what the world might be doing, what the false teachers might be doing, and you actually see that in verse 5. But you, there's another contrast there, and we'll be looking at that a little bit. I might just say to the children, if you want to draw a picture, you might draw a picture of a runner carrying something, and it's a baton, runners carry that baton and pass it on to another runner. So if you want to draw a picture, you might just draw a picture of that, and I'll be mentioning something about that a little later as we begin the sermon. 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 to 8. Let's hear the Word of God. I solemnly charge you, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of evangelists, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a dink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I've fought the good faith, I've fought the good fight, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all those who have loved His appearing. I trust you all, and I've got a sermon online. In track and field, one of the things they do as part of their competition is they have relay races. And you can think about that in the Olympics as you have these teams from the various countries racing against each other, and the first runner sets off and runs his leg, and then he or she will pass a baton onto the second runner, who runs, and then in turn passes it to the third, and then to the fourth, who then crosses the finish line. And to be successful, You have to faithfully pass on the baton. You can have the four fastest runners in the world on your team, but if they drop the baton, they're disqualified. And they don't win the gold medal. It must be faithfully passed from one runner to the next, to the next, all the way through. Well, in many ways, the church is like that. The baton that we have is the gospel, and it's to be passed on from one generation to the next. That message of Jesus Christ is to go from one person to the next, to the next, to the next, and continue on. And it's crucial that it be done in the right way. Just as it's disastrous to drop the baton, so too It's disastrous to drop the gospel. And so Paul is writing in these last few verses, knowing that his turn of running that race is ending. He's passing the baton, the gospel, on to Timothy. And he's encouraging Timothy about how he will run his leg of the race. He knows he has perhaps weeks or maybe only a few days left to live. And so he's very mindful that that gospel and the way it's proclaimed will now be in Timothy's hands to carry on. And so he begins with a solemn charge. Verse 1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Can you think of any wording that would be more solemn? That would give more emphasis to Timothy about what you're to do? Consider well, there's a seriousness of what he's going to charge Timothy. He's essentially saying, I'm handing this baton, I'm handing the gospel to you, now run with it correctly. In verse 5 he says, Fulfill your ministry. How does Timothy run the race? It's by fulfilling his ministry. And that word, ministry, really means, has a word deacon, service. You're deaconing. And it's a comprehensive term for all that Timothy has learned. There were times when he traveled with Paul on those missionary journeys and saw Paul and heard him and watched him. He got a first letter from Paul and now this second one. He used to do them. He used to live them out faithfully in his life. And of course, the same thing applies to you and to me. We may have a different ministry than Timothy had. or that Paul had. But God has given us, each one, a place of service in His kingdom. And the question is, how do we fulfill that? How are we faithful in that particular area God has given to us? So the first point is the nature of the solemn charge given to Timothy. And it begins by focusing upon the Word, I want you to write in on the outline the word THE. It's THE word. Preach THE word. Paul doesn't say preach a word or preach a message, but preach THE word. The word of God. The word that has been God breathed. We saw that at the end of chapter 3. That word that is able to bring about salvation when it's coupled with faith in Jesus Christ. That Word that we saw a couple of weeks ago that prepares a person for service in God's kingdom, that equips you for kingdom living and kingdom service. It's a living Word. It's relevant to each generation. It's just as relevant today as we look to decide how do we live. It's the living Word of the living God that we have that's to direct us. And thus, in the church, the focus is never to be on man's thinking, the latest idea from psychology or philosophy or what the current trend is, but on the word of God. I always come back to what has God said? And that needs to be central in my thinking. In this word, Timothy is to proclaim. You read there in the second verse, preach the word. But it's really better, proclaim the word. The word has a sense of a herald who would go into the marketplace and make a proclamation to all that could hear. When it's translated preach, you think often, well, I'm not a preacher. That doesn't relate to me. But we all are called to proclaim. to have those around us hear the words of Christ, that message. And Timothy is to be ready in season and out of season. And that's the idea when it's convenient and also when it's not convenient. And why? Because that Word, that Gospel is so important that people need to hear it. And if there's an opportunity, and it's in the middle of the night, You're to take it. We might compare it to a soldier. You know, if the battle comes, you need to be ready to fight at any moment. You can't say, well, don't attack at three in the morning, wait until seven and then I'll come out and do battle with you. And in the background is a spiritual battle going on. And Timothy always needs to be ready for that battle. And when there's an opportunity to proclaim Christ, to proclaim Him. And of course, you and I as well. This is a matter of life and death, of eternal life. And eternal death. And so, we as well need to proclaim it whenever we have opportunity. Well, secondly, Timothy is to use the work. He's to use the Bible to disciple others. To seek change in life, in the lives of others, those who would be Christians, to train people by the Word of God. Look at what goes on next. It's to reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. That is, you look at the Word of God you have, What is necessary to correct wrong teaching, to correct wrong behavior, to lead in the right path, and in the process, as the person is confronted with the Word of God, they can become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. It's also to be done with great patience and instruction. People need to be taught carefully the truth. It isn't something you just sort of stumble upon and it's instantly with you. It's to be done with patience. There are people who will not learn as quickly as you'd like. And often times we get impatient. I think that's especially true of young pastors, but it can be true of all of us. You know, someone isn't living up to our expectations. We want to see them change faster. We know that they're making wrong decisions. Why aren't they waking up and making good decisions? And it takes patience and it takes instruction. Now all we need to do is think about how many times is God patient with us? How many times do we choose the wrong way and God has to bring us back? And so we need to be patient with others. The other aspects of the ministry of how Timothy is to serve, and you can look first of all in verse 5. He's called to be sober-minded. To be sober in all things. And that implies really a moral alertness. Rather than a spiritual drunkenness or a spiritual stupor, he's to be spiritually alert to what's going on. As Paul is saying, keep your head in all situations. It seems to me one of the great weaknesses in the church today is the loss of the ability to think rightly, to discern truth from error. You see all sorts of errors creeping in the church. We need to be serious minded what true Christianity is. Along with us, secondly, he's told to endure hardship. And there's a theme that's mentioned several different times in this letter. That we can expect there's going to be opposition to the gospel. As the kingdom of God is making advance, the devil is going to oppose. He's going to stand in the way. He's not going to let it advance without a fight. And yet, we're to know that God is in control. So that as we endure hardship, it's knowing that we're ultimately on the winning side. That we will be victorious through Christ. And so we can endure for the sake of the gospel. Knowing that our endurance in hardship is not in vain, but is part of the advance and the triumph of the kingdom of God. Third area is evangelism. Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. And behind this is the idea that God has His chosen people, those who will hear, and those who will respond. And so, Timothy is to continually proclaim the Good News. That God will be building His church, and He's not to be deterred by the fact that they're false teachers, that men's hearts are often hard to the gospel. By his own timidity, he's to do the work of an evangelist. And there's a challenge for us as well. We could often cite those very same excuses. You know, I'm pretty timid. You talk about religion, that's pretty personal. I don't really feel comfortable doing that. You know, there are those who oppose. They ridicule. On the job, there are people who make fun of me for being religious, for being a Christian. You know, I've tried to do evangelism, and people haven't responded. They don't seem to hear me when I warn them about sin and the consequences. But for Timothy and for us, it's a matter of great urgency. Timothy was to focus upon it. That's his task at hand. To do the work of an evangelist. And as we started a church here, that needs to be a focus of us all. To be out there sharing the good news with others. You might compare it to a pilot landing a plane. What's crucial is to keep in mind what he's doing, that he's to land that plane. He doesn't need to be looking at his watch and worrying about whether he's going to arrive on time or not. Or be thinking about, well, where am I going to go for dinner? Or, you know, do I have to mow my yard when I get home? Or did I leave my toothbrush back at home? What's important is simply one thing at that point. Is landing the plane, is the landing gear down? Is he coming? down to the airport at the right slant, the right slope. Or is he approaching it too fast? That's what's crucial. And for men and women needing to hear the gospel, it's for us to be doing that work of evangelist. So the second point, as we see the grounds or the reasons for this urgent appeal, Why is Paul speaking to Timothy in this way? Well, first of all, Paul knows of his coming departure. Verse 6, where I'm already being poured out as a drink offering in the time of my departure has come. He knows. He only has a short time. God has somehow revealed it to him that the things have gone poorly in his trial before Caesar, and he's going to be executed. Timothy is going to remain. Timothy is going to be the one to whom that baton is passed, and he needs to fulfill his responsibilities. I'm going, but as for you, You're staying in the battle. There were departures used of a ship being loosened from its moorings, or soldiers breaking camp. Paul knows his day of execution is coming. He is going to be loose from his body physically. And so this is an urgency. Timothy is the one who's got to carry it on. Those responsibilities had in some are going to now be placed upon his shoulders firmly. The second reason is because of the increase in false teaching. Look at verse 3. The people, and it's really talking about God's people, those who claim to be following Jesus Christ. What's going to happen? They will not endure sound or healthy teaching, but one, they're going to have their ears tickled. They will go after false teachers. Talks about them being those who tickle the ears, who really go after what is curious or interesting. Spicy pieces of information, that sort of thing. They're wanting to be entertained. They want to speculate. They're wanting to hear something new. And think of that, the newest Dan Brown book is out. And they're all filled with all sorts of speculation, wild speculation. And the sad thing is they're best sellers in our land. And if you read some of their reviews, oh, please help us put Christianity in a new light. Well, he's doing what has been done for 2,000 years of speculating, coming up with something beyond scripture that's unscriptural. What people don't like to hear about is hell, a sin in the need of repentance or judgment to come. Those are the things that people need to hear about. Those are the things, when they're understood, will produce spiritual health. But too often, that message is left behind, whether it be the health and wealth gospel, or speculations like Dan Brown. And the church can focus on wrong things. They accumulate. They heap together. Not just one or two, but these false teachers abound. They're supported. They turn away their eyes from the truth and turn aside to miss. It's not enough to focus on what the Bible says. They abandon it for lies. And the people We'll listen. And it's easy to deviate. But notice in verse 5. It says, but you. Soudain. Okay, the false teachers are going to speculate. They're going to have all these weird ideas out there. They're going to attract a following. They're going to seem popular. Everybody's going to embrace them. But you. Paul's coming back to that. But you, Timothy. You're to be different. You're to hold to the truth. You're to continue on. You're to go back to the Word of God and proclaim it. And of course, we are as well. We're to hold to that Word of God. It doesn't matter what the rest of the world is doing, what the rest of Christianity is doing. We're to hold on. Sude. But you are to hold to the truth that's found in the Bible. For the third point, as we can see a personal illustration, and that's of Paul himself. Paul's life should be an encouragement to Timothy to fulfill his ministry, to you and to me to fulfill our ministries, our service in the kingdom. Paul's life First of all, it shows his faithfulness to God. Look at verse 7 at the end. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. The word fight and fought in English becomes agony. It really has the idea of an athletic contest where you go at it and maybe it's a wrestling match and you strain every muscle. Every fiber of your being is at work in that wrestling match to win. And Paul has been involved in the greatest contest of all, a service in the kingdom of God, and every fiber of his being has been given to that task. Interestingly, he doesn't say, I've won the race. but simply, I have finished the course. Because what's important is the course that God has laid out before him, and to follow along that course, and to reach its conclusion. Even as he faces trials, as he looks death squarely at his face, he can say, I have kept the faith. He has kept it to the very end in an example for Timothy and for you and for me of being faithful to God, of staying continually faithful even to the point of death. But secondly, we can also see God's faithfulness to Paul. As you look at verse 8, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. laid up or stored, implies that there's a crown safely put away, stored in a bank. And that bank is up in heaven, where nothing can destroy, can cause it to rust. No one can break in and steal it. God is faithful to those who trust in Him, that they will not be disappointed or put to shame. And as you look at the very end of verse 8, it ends with encouragement to Timothy and to all Christians, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His coming. Christians, true Christians are those who look forward to the coming of Christ, when the kingdom will be completed, when we'll be delivered from this earthly existence, from the sin that corrupts. And God is saying to those who look for that, who long for it, who seek after that, be faithful to breathe into heaven. What a promise that your labor and your work will not go unnoticed. In the world, there may not be headlines in the local newspaper, but in the sight of God, you will see, and He will indeed reward. For application, I have you think of two things this morning. First is to consider what is your field of service or ministry. God has given us, each one, some area to serve. And it may be just as a mother, helping your husband and taking care of children. Some it may be in some area of work. It may be to be his representative in your neighborhood. It may be that he has saved you to bring the gospel to the other members of your family who need to hear it. It may be to serve the congregation in some way. It may be to be an officer. What is the service, the area of service that God has called you? You need to know well what that is, and to be faithful in that. And second, like Timothy, we are to do the work of evangelists. We are to proclaim the Good News. We consider tarot, there are many who are in darkness. many who need to hear. And the question is, who will bring them that message? And you may be the only Christian that certain people might know. And you may be that one that God has chosen to bring that message. Now, you're not responsible for the result. Only God can change the heart. But you are responsible for being faithful, for proclaiming Christ. And so I'd encourage you to be praying about it. Who is it that God has placed me near that I might proclaim Jesus Christ to them? For me, Father, as we look at Timothy, those words, Sudeik, but you, ring in our ears that Timothy was called to be in a contrast to the world, the false teachers that were in the church. And we are as well. We are to be men and women. Even boys and girls who are committed to you, committed to your Word. Show us how to do that. How are you giving us a place of service? And what that means. That our lives are to be built upon the Word of God. And that we desire that others would hear that Word, to be proclaiming that Word. to those around us who are in darkness and need those words of help that produce spiritual health concerning Christ. Help us to do that. Help us to be bold in our witness. Pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.