Transcript

2 Timothy 4. Please turn with us this afternoon. It came to my mind as I was sitting and thinking about this sermon how God has needed to work in myself as Brother Barry so accurately described the storms of Reformation though they are real and they will come, they are inevitable. In my experience, there have always been storms indicating my own need of reformation. Without exception, there has not been a season of trial or hardship, persecution or whatever it is that God was not also dealing with me, humbling me, bringing me to repentance about some things. You may not know this, but I’m a strategist. I love to structure and organize things, put things in systems, make them work and make them go. I had a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention one time who visited our church and said this is the best run church in the Southern Baptist Convection. Well, that may be okay but is it the godliest church in the Southern Baptist Convention? I’ve always had a passion for preaching and expositional preaching but in those early years, to be quite honest, I put far too much weight in my own thinking and in my own heart on all the systems we organized. An intricately developed world missions ministry and I don’t think you can work any harder at small groups than we worked at it, how we organized it and structured it. All of it explicitly biblical, none of it was wrong or sinful except that I myself put too much weight in the programs and the systems even if they be difficult and not enough weight on the preaching of the word. Again, you may not have been able to see that, I mean, the person from the outside, but I knew that. And then God brought me through one of those storms of reformation and just to be quite honest, I only had enough energy to get ready for the pulpit, perod. I let everything else go. Now fortunately I had good folks in the church and good staff who helped keep things going but God literally brought me to the place where just getting the strength to preach on Sunday was all I had left and there he proved to me the primacy and the sufficiency of preaching the word of God. I came to the conclusion that these other things are not wrong, as a matter of fact, they’re good, but they are secondary. They are not primary. Preaching the word is primary.

Let’s go to 2 Timothy 4, and we’ll begin in verse 1 and go down through verse 8. Paul writing to young Timothy as Paul is coming to the end of his ministry says,

1 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 and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 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 to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 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 who have loved His appearing.

The primacy of preaching the word of God is attacked in every generation. The modern pulpit has largely replaced spirit impassioned Bible preaching with things like drama and media, various amusements, entertainments and supercharged secular music. Also, I think it’s true in most every generation, there arises a faction of independent spirited “holy ones” who deem that Bible reading and Bible study either individually or in small groups is really sufficient and the pulpit ministry though good, is yet optional and nonessential. My friends, that is simply not so. Look at what the Apostle Paul says about this, if we go back up into 2 Timothy 3:16, note his strong statement on the inerrancy, or you could say the inspiration of Scripture, ” All Scripture is inspired by God,” has all authority, infallibility, inerrancy, all Scripture is in effect God breathed. Secondly, notice he extols the sufficiency of Scripture. The last part of 2 Timothy 3:16, “And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” You need to go nowhere but to the Scriptures to be adequately equipped for every work God calls you to do in the ministry.

So he says the Scriptures are infallible, they are full of authority. Secondly, he says the Scriptures are fully sufficient. Now thirdly, he talks about the preaching of the Scriptures. Look at it there, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, “I solemnly charge you,” that is, based on what I’ve just a said, “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus came preaching. The Scriptures tell us that John the forerunner came preaching. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 10:9 and 14, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” Now note, he did not say,” How shall they hear without a Bible study leader?” He did not say, “How shall they hear if they do not have a discipleship group leader?” Now I don’t want to be unbalanced here, those are essential and important ministries in the life of the church but they are not to replace the preaching of the word.

How shall they hear without a preacher? In 1 Timothy 4:13 and 15, the Apostle Paul, let’s just go there right quick. He tells young Timothy in this text about how he is to do his work of the ministry of the word. 1 Timothy 4:13, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” Verse 15, “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.” The phrase there “be absorbed” is in the present imperative which means it is a command. It is not an idea; it is not a suggestion; it’s not, “Timothy, one of the many things that you must do is this thing. No, I’m commanding you, be absorbed in this activity.” What is it? The preaching of the word. Now, some scholars tell us those ideas of taking pains and to be absorbed means that the pastor is to completely immerse himself in this labor. In effect, he is labor to the point of exhaustion in preaching the word of God.

Now let me give you four things from our text back over there 2 Timothy 4:1-8. First of all, I. Let’s note the charge as to the gravity of this work, the weightiness of this work. Look at it in verse 1 again of 2 Timothy 4, “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 and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” You know, one is almost inclined to question Paul’s choice of words. I mean, the weight behind these words is unparalleled. It’s awesome. Is there anything in life that can merit such an audacious charge? In fearless boldness, Paul’s summons the first and second persons of the Godhead as supporting witnesses to his charge. Would you be that bold as to give anybody that kind of a charge? Faithful preaching of the word of God is foundational and it is an absolute necessity to the conversion of souls and to the health of the church. Now I know what some are thinking and it is true partially, “But what about all the great personal soul winners? They’re winning souls?” Yes, and may their tribe increase. Praise the Lord for personal soul winners. “What about the Bible study groups and the discipleship groups and we see people genuinely saved?” I say praise God and hallelujah for that but I’m telling you in back of every soul converted is the preaching of the word of God. If there are not people preaching the word of God in true churches, all the rest will unravel and fall apart. In back of all of it is faithful preaching if you have to go all the way back to Jesus who came preaching. There is always the preaching of the word behind faithful evangelism of any form or any method.

So here the Apostle Paul in our text warns Timothy in view of an avenging God and as Christ as his judge, to faithfully discharge his office of preaching. Now our God has already shown his great and severe care for his church when he delivered over his only begotten Son for her and listen, he will not allow negligent ministers of that church to go unpunished. There should be a hushed silence in the study when you look at a text like this. You are before God and Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead. Those who are commissioned to care for the souls of men and are unfaithful in preaching the word of God are accountable before Christ who will judge the living and the dead. What that means is, “Preacher, you will not escape judgment for how you handled your ministry.” “Well, I’ll just die.” Well, the Bible says the men in Revelation will cry for the rock ledges to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb as he appears but that will do no good, he will just raise you from the dead and call you into judgment. There is no escaping it. All will be held accountable. The calling to the office of preacher is a dangerous calling and it exposes one to harsher judgment. James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”

The Apostle Paul says not only are you going to be charged before Jesus and accountable to him who judges the living and the dead, but he also includes this phrase “and by his appearing and by his kingdom.” You see, Christ reigns in heaven and on earth yet on earth his reign is not yet clearly seen. He now reigns in the midst of his enemy, but on that day, the day of his appearing, he will reign over his enemies because his kingdom is now veiled, advantageous hirelings, false prophets and other enemies of our Lord have invaded the church and they’ve occupied the sacred desk and henceforth spew milky man-centered mush instead of, “What saith the Scriptures?” The church is under an all out attack yet his kingdom will soon appear and it will be established on earth as it is in heaven and he will reduce to nothing every opposing power and unfaithful preachers will be at the top of that list. In judgment, he will display his majesty in his glory. The fateful pastors will reign with him in that day. The unfaithful pastors will be removed by him. So here Paul gives this sobering charge as to the gravity of the work of the minister of God.

Now, why would he give that to Timothy? There is every indication Timothy hasn’t veered at all. Well, I think you and I can answer that, can we not? Even the most committed need a stirring to continued faithfulness. How many of you sitting under my voice today even in the last few months have had a least a wandering thought, “This just isn’t working. Maybe I need to veer off to another approach.” I mean, the best of men need to be awed into faithful discharge of their duty. The gravity of this charge.

Notice secondly in our text, not only the charge as to the gravity of the work, notice the charge to consistency in the work. Consistency in the work. We’ve seen these verses many times, verse 2, he says, “be ready in season and out of season.” The idea of “be ready” means “to take a stand; don’t move; stick to it; decide this is what you’re going to be, this is what you’re going to do, this is what this ministry will be built on and we will sink or rise on this. Success or failure? I do not know, but this is what I’m going to do. That’s what he’s commanding. And then he says, “in season or out of season.” You’ve heard it many times, in season is when it’s an opportune time. That’s those times, brothers, when the people just seem to be open. They listen more intently; they are interested in what you are saying and what you are preaching. I’m a country boy and I grew up fishing over here on the Tennessee River and we used to go out and catch what we called Jack Salmon, sauger is the more known name but nevertheless it is a wonderful fish. It’s sort of a southern wall-eye and it’s a beautiful white, sweet meat. But there’s one thing about it, there’s only about six weeks or so out of the year when they are in season. When they are spawning they will go up below the dam and they’ll spawn and you can go up there and you can find them and you can catch several dozen 1-3 pound sauger and they are wonderful beautiful fish. But I’m telling you when those Jack Salmon are out of season, you can fish all week and maybe catch one and that’s the way it is in the gospel ministry. You keep fishing. You keep casting the lure. You keep being consistent. There will be some good seasons and there will be some tough ones. But Paul said be consistent in season and out of season.

We’ve been in this reforming work in this church for 31 or so years now, at least that’s how long my tenure has been and we’ll be in it until we all go to heaven. Amen? Reformed and always reforming. I remember when we began to be more committed to true conversion and a true gospel preaching, how lean those times were and how discouraged I would get and how I would just long to know that one person got converted. In my discouragement, I’d often pray that prayer that we see in the New Testament, “Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.” And every time I prayed that prayer, it would only be a day or two and I’d run into someone who would say, “Pastor, last Sunday when you were preaching or last week when I was in my bed thinking about what you said in your sermon, I believe the Lord has changed my heart. I feel the weight of my sin and I believe I’ve come to know Christ as my Lord and Savior.” But that was an out of season time. Everyone looked at me sort of like, as we say in the South, a calf at a new gate. Like, “What are you saying? What are you teaching us? This is all different.” There were those lean seasons, those out of season times.

Then in the last six months, God sent something of an awakening and especially with our young people and we’ve baptized about 25 young people and upwards to 40 of them have come to us for counseling over their souls and scores of them can give articulate, weighty, biblical testimonies of true conversion and thank God for those in season times. But we are to be consistent. I think we’re too effeminate and to weak in our pulpits. We say, “It’s no use.” We say, “They won’t respond. Well, they’re not interested. It’s out of season.” But let us not grow weary in well doing. Let us not shift off of our duty. You have no idea what the Spirit of God is doing in the hearts of men. The wind bloweth where it listeth Many things come and go but preaching is always in season. I like to deer hunt and I know we just closed out our deer hunting season and I didn’t do too well this year. I shot at five and hit three and found zero. It was in season, but I wasn’t very good. But you know there’s a deer season and there’s a quail season, there’s a rabbit season, there’s squirrel season but there are some varmints like coyotes and beaver and they never go out of season. You can kill them all the time. Well, that’s the way it is with preaching, brother, it is never out of season to preach the word of God. It may be out of season the way they are responding but as far as we’re concerned it’s time to preach the word. There are a lot of varmints we need to get that week, coyotes and beavers. 1001 times I’ve exhorted pastors to do two things in the first several years of their pastorate: preach the word and organize your members into small groups of Sunday schools that the body may learn to minister to one another. And if you get tired in both of those, then slack off on small groups but never stop preaching the word of God. Be consistent in the work.

Paul gives Timothy a charge as to the gravity of the work. It is sobering. There ought to be some trembling when you think about it. He gives them a charge as to consistency in the work. Thirdly, he gives a charge as to the endurance in the work. To endure in the work. As a matter fact, he says in verse 5, “Be sober in all things, endure hardship.” He didn’t say, “if hardship comes endure it,” no, he says “endure the hardship,” that is, this is common and incumbent on being a gospel minister. Endure hardship.

I mentioned four things and some of our other brothers have hit on these also but let me mention the first one. First of all, endure the hardship of dullness. Dullness. Just an indifference. In verse 3, he says a “time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” Notice, there’s a time that will come. In Hebrews 5:11, the apostle wrote, ” Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Sometimes the people are just dull of hearing. But let me say something to you: if God is long-suffering should not we also be long-suffering? God doesn’t give up. Listen friends, there is always hope for any soul as long as it is God who saves the soul. Is that not true? The hardest to reach, the most difficult, the most hardened sinner, there is still a possibility that God might save them and if God is long-suffering, why shouldn’t we be also? And let me challenge you with this: be especially diligent now when there is an open season. Plow up the fallow ground. Put in the ditch. Faithfully sow the seed while there is an opportune time and this will help guard against the coming day of indifference and lessen the winters cold because all of our churches will go through a cold snap. If you think Spirit-filled ministry means that you’re just going to get in a church and it’s always hot and it’s always happening and the people are always interested and they are always responsive and there’s always converts, I’m going to tell you, you’ve been reading the wrong Bible. The Lord Jesus inspired this holy word through the Apostle Paul who told the young preacher Timothy, “You will have those times when they will not endure sound doctrine.” Whatever else that means, there will be a time of dullness but soon the cold will lift, the warm spring wind of new responsiveness will come. The dullness is but for a time. Thank God for that. It’s for a time. One of my seminary professors, Dr. Phil Allyson, said his wife’s favorite verse was, “And it came to pass.” Thank God it didn’t come to stay. It came to pass. I think you’ve got a promise here that it’s a time but the time doesn’t last forever. These times will come to all of our ministries but be assured it’s only for a time. If we are faithful in season and out of season, then more blessed days will follow. Dullness.

Another hardship I think we’ll have to endure is desertions. He said, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” The scholars tell us that phrase “they will not endure sound doctrine” means literally they will not hold themselves back. They will let the lusts of their flesh, they will let their desire for worldly things and carnal amusements pull them away. They just won’t hold themselves back any longer from those kinds of enticements. That means they’re deserting you. He elaborates by saying, “wanting to have their ears tickled they’ll heap up to themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” Now having a tickling ear can literally be translated an itching ear and whatever else an itching ear is, it’s an ear that’s unsettled. It’s an ear that is not at rest. Have you preached when you’ve known there were some people and some families in your church and they just weren’t at rest, they were just unsettled? You didn’t know what was going to happen to them. They weren’t rocks, they were more like a cork tossed on water. That’s what he’s talking about here. The time will come, Paul tells Timothy, when Spirit -mpowered Bible preaching will not be enough for them. The old gospel just doesn’t scratch where they itch. However, we must not succumb to the trade of the popular preachers who furnished the latest tickle.

Verse 3, he continues in elaboration and says, “they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” This has the idea that they are committed to this task. They’re not just sort of wondering what they might do, they’ve come to a point where they are dyed in the wool, sold out to finding a preacher who will furnish them the latest tickle. And that’s a difficult thing to endure when you’re seeing your church members chase those kind of things. These deserters take pleasure in tickling teachings and do not delight in the truth of the word of God but the Bible warns if they do not repent, God will seal them in their error, sealing up their hearts and minds in that error by sending them strong delusion. Listen to 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” “What about these who desert me? What about these who go away? What about these who will not stay in sound doctrine?” It’s very likely God is sending them a deluding influence. That’s why they’re not going to stay under sound teaching and sound doctrine.

Well, not only dullness and desertions but also, of course, first cousin to desertions is divisions. Divisions. Look at verse 4 of our text, “and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” So we see a clear division there. They separate off from the truth, the fellowship of truth, the preaching of truth and they attach themselves to the teachings of men and the fellowship of men. It’s a clear division. They form parties over nonessentials. We live in a day when everybody’s got their niche, some sideline issue, some unsound secondary thing and they want to center their lives and their group around that. 1 Corinthians 1:12, Paul talked about how “that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,'” here is another division, “and ‘I of Apollos,'” another division, “and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.'” I remember reading in Arnold Dallimore’s biography of George Whitefield how Whitefield traveled back across the ocean to England to minister for a season and when he came back from England to the Colonies, that John Wesley had stolen most of his congregations and it took Whitefield months to preach and collect some of them back. Doesn’t it encourage you to know that some of the great men of God of old that we look to and follow had the same kind of problems? The hardship of facing these divisions. Of course, Paul in Ephesus as we heard earlier, Acts 20:28-30, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock,” and not sparing the flock means that they are going to try to draw them away, “and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” That word, that Greek word “perverse things” has the idea of being crooked, a distortion, a twist, a misinterpretation. It means they put their own spin on the passage in order to build their movement and their group. You’re going to have some of that. It’s amazing some of this stuff. Some of you right now, you’re factious in your spirit. You’ve got a little spin, you’ve got a little niche, you’ve got a little sideline thing that’s got your heart instead of Christ and the gospel being the center of what you’re about. Listen to me: everything else is secondary. Don’t build a group around some man’s spin on a few verses of Scripture. Be principled, not all about specific structures. Principles matter, structures can vary. 1 Corinthians 11:19, the apostle says, “There must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved of God may become evident among you.” That’s an interesting phrase. Paul writes to this Corinthian church that’s full of divisions and factions and he says there must be those, as a matter of fact, that’s God’s means of identifying the true spiritual ones from the carnal ones. Factious men rise up and they are but magnets drawing unsound men to their following.

Well D, depression. Dullness, desertions, divisions those are all attacks from without but depression is that attack from within. Do you find that discouragement and anxieties and fears can seemingly spring out of nowhere in your heart? They just come upon you. Even the great honored Spurgeon said, “Beneath the castle of despair is a dungeon and I live there much of the time.” Elijah was depressed after his victory over the prophets of Baal and he runs for his life in despair from the vengeance of Jezebel. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” The Apostle Paul said he had some difficult hardships he endured and we know about those. But I believe God has a purpose for sending weak and frail men into the battle for him. It’s so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.

You know, depression is like the natural fog. You know, fog doesn’t come down from heaven, it comes up out of the earth and that’s where depression comes from. It comes up from out of us. Unless there’s a true physiological disorder, I’ve noted in my own experience, when I’m depressed, it’s rooted in self and it’s rooted in pride. Or you can put it this way, it’s the fear of man. Almost always when there’s depression, you’re focusing on men, what men think, how men value things, how men measure success. That’s the fear of man. One day I was in the midst of a storm here at Grace Life Church and I remember it was a Wednesday night and there was a spirit of hyper-criticism that had come over the church. Have you ever been in a church where that happened? I mean, just hyper-criticism, everything was just being a fault-finding critical spirit was everywhere and literary for hours every day I was sitting with church members who had a list of all the things they thought we were doing wrong, all the things that I was doing wrong. Some of them were good things. They weren’t necessarily scriptural violations of major issues but just stuff and it just broke me down. I was trying to be humble. I was trying to listen. And actually I got into more of an introspection, just overly… you know, you can be proud trying to be too humble. You focus too much on fixing yourself and you never get back to the ministry. Don’t misunderstand me, that’s a wise and good thing because a balance to everything.

I remember it was a Wednesday night and I was so beat down and so broken that I just wanted to sit in my office and weep before the Lord and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just felt like I couldn’t go out and preach that Wednesday night and I called my friend, Jay Adams, and don’t call Jay Adams unless you want a good biblical answer. And I thought Dr. Adams would spend 10 or 15 minutes and he would coax me and he will comfort me and he will console me and I barely got two sentences or so out of my mouth and said, “Dr. Adams, you know the church is in turmoil. We have a split within the church, a division. People are hyper-critical. I’m just worn out and beat up. I just can’t go out there and preach.” Here is what he said, this was his whole counsel, “What did God call you to do?” “I said preach.” “He said go out there and throw yourself into it. The church needs you now more than ever.” I felt better. I mean, instantly I felt better. Brother, give people the truth. I’m telling you, that Wednesday night I went out there and preached like a house on fire. We need that from time to time. We need the truth.

You know, I live on the side of a mountain. Well, it’s a mountain in Alabama and early in the morning sometimes when I leave, there’s a fog that sets in on that mountain moreso than in the lower plane but when that fog sets in, I find that what I do is I just slow down, I turn on the lights and I just remain steady and sure enough, given some time, the sunbeams will hit that fog and it will lift and brightness will be all around and I think that’s the way it is in our life. Sometimes that fog of depression will fall on you and what you need to do is just slow down, remain steady, turn on the light of Scripture and soon enough, God will bring the light of God’s truth in and brightness will come back into your life. He didn’t say the hardship would stay, brothers, he said just endure it when it comes. Endure hardship.

Lastly, IV. The charge as to the continuity of the work. The charge as to the continuity of the work. Look at it in verses 6 through 8, if you would. Paul is giving a frame of reference for why he has given this awesome charge to Timothy, he says, “For I,” Paul, “am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have 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 who have loved His appearing.” Paul is saying, “Now Timothy, I faithfully lived out the charge I’ve given to you and by the way, Timothy, there will be faithful men who will heed the charge after you’re gone.” And that’s what I want us to focus on, the fact that we are all a part of a continuum. You’re not alone. Truth didn’t begin with you. There are 700 hidden away in a cave that has not bowed the knee to the false idol of Baal. We’re like links in a chain. It’s a chain that begins in God and links down through Moses and the old patriarchs and the fathers of Israel and the faithful prophets and preachers down through the forerunner John and our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul and Peter and John Mark and the great early fathers of the church and the great reformers of our faith and the early faithful Baptist preachers all the way down to today and today we have the baton. But it’s part of a continuum. You will depart and you’ll hand it off to someone else. It’s a chain that started in God and it ends in eternity. Let’s just not be a weak link in the chain.

You know, geese are incredible when it comes to endurance. I’ve read where the snow geese migrate 5,000 miles in one direction. There are some geese that migrate over the Himalayan Mountains 31,000 feet tall, 60° below 0. Brother, that’s endurance. But God made them smart about it. Geese always travel in groups and they always fly in a V formation. Scientists tell us that’s because the V formation allows the wind to be diverted around, it reduces the wind drag. Up to 20% of their energy is conserved over flying alone. They have a system where one old goose will be out in the front and he’ll take the brunt of it for a while and when that goose gets tired, he’ll take his place at the end and another one will jump up in the lead. Well, that’s the way the pastoral ministry is, brother, it’s a continuum. We may have the lead right now. It’s our time. It’s this generation and we must be faithful but as we get tired like the other Apostle Paul, then we say we’re about to be poured out and let’s hand it off to another generation and say, “Brother, take it and run and preach the word and be faithful, be consistent.”

We’ve had something unusual happen, it’s probably happening around the Southeast. Here in North Alabama we’re finding out that a lot of geese have learned that it’s better just to hang out down here and stop this migration thing, it’s just too much work. It’s just too tough. There are actually golf courses that have literally been taken over by these geese that don’t migrate anymore. They just sit around and eat and get fat. Spring Park over here, you can hardly go there anymore for the feathers and the goose droppings everywhere. But the wildlife biologists tell us that’s not a good thing: they weren’t designed to do that. They begin to graze among their own droppings and begin to ingest bacteria and they have all kind of disease and weakness come into them, plus they become fat and unfit and they can’t hardly even fly anymore. That’s what happens to some preachers. They fall out. This enduring hardships is just no fun anymore, we’ll just compromise. You’ll be diseased and unhealthy and you’ll be unfaithful in the chain that began in God and ends in eternity.

So Paul tells Timothy here, “Be faithful. Carry on this evangelistic work that I have carried on before you. You are not alone.” The work did not begin with you, it will not end with you and each generation is a link in the chain of church history. So let’s stay faithful in the charge of being consistent in season and out of season. Let’s humble ourselves under the gravity of this charge because God the Father and God the Son who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom exhorting us to preach the word, let’s commit to consistency in this charge. Let’s commit to continued endurance in this charge and let’s commit to the continuity of this charge. We’re just part of a long line of God-called preachers. If that’s true, then there’s a great, great reward and blessing ahead for all of us. Some of it will be here. Today I pastor a church that is a wonderful, wonderful blessing. I really wish all pastors could enjoy the kind of congregation that I enjoy. I mean, there is just a humility, there is a gospel humility and a love and a unity and a love for truth that is all too rare and I often tell our church family there is nothing special about us, we’re just barely normal. They just think that everyone else is pretty much sub normal. As Dr. Vance Havner said, that makes everyone think you’re abnormal.

So there are some blessings down here but the great blessing, brothers, is not down here. We’re citizens of another kingdom. Our names are written down in heaven. We’re not home yet. That’s the way Paul ends it for Timothy. Look at verse 7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have 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,” that means all the brothers in this continuum, “but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Let’s pray together Our heavenly Father, we humble ourselves when we contemplate the gravity of this charge. Lord, I pray you would stir these men to deep sobriety, alertness and absolute commitment that they will with humility, with deep love, with spiritual boldness, always and only build their ministries on the preaching of the word of God. I pray, God, you would give us grace that we would be consistent in our ministries. When it’s out of season and there’s dullness and sometimes even desertions and divisions and sometimes rising in our heart comes depression, O God, we don’t run by our emotions, we go back to truth and we preach the word of God and we pray more and we preach the word of God more. Lord, give us the grace to be consistent in this charge. O God, give these dear brothers, give Jeff Noblit, give us grace to endure, to make it through the difficult season. Thank you for that promise that there is only a time when these things come. There are other times, good times, blessed times, harvest times, awakening times, receptive times. And Lord, give us grace to grasp and understand we’re absolutely not alone. There is a long chain of faithfulness back behind us all the way back to you, our God in heaven and we want to be faithful to hand the baton off as a long chain of faithful men who will follow us should you tarry. Lord, give us grace to be faithful that you might build healthy, sound churches and you might get more glory for your name, more fame to your name through our work and our ministries. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.