Listen to the Truth

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Immanuel – 3/19/23

For one week we break from the journey of Abraham. We deviate to consider something of incredible importance, not just for the life of the church, but for your eternal life. In fact, today’s topic touches on one of the most critical elements in the entire Christian life.

Purpose

1. The preaching of the word is vital to the Christian life.

2. I want you to be able to identify good preaching.

3. As hearers, it is your responsibility to listen to truth.

This is a peculiar thing we do every week. I stand here, my voice amplified, and with passion, I speak: 30, 40, 50 minutes. You sit there in your seats and quietly listen. Why?

Have you come to hear jokes? Am I to charm you with personality and stories? Am I to entertain you? Are we here to have fun together? Have you come to hear a social commentary? Do you want me to inspire you to be better people? What are we doing with these Sunday mornings? Why are we all here?

Because we all need the precious, life giving, everlasting word of God! We cannot live by bread alone! Our souls starve for God’s word. You have come because you want to know what God says. I have been called to feed you, this local gathering of saints, with bread from heaven: the word of God.

If I give you my own words and opinions, then there is nothing special in this pulpit, only that which you can find in a million other places. And the man that stands up front playing for laughs and regaling you with his stories, he is no pastor. Even worse are those preachers and teachers that offer something that sounds so good, so true, so desirable; but if you eat their food, it will turn you sick. And if you fail to vomit it out, the serpent’s apple will certainly kill you.

So you, listener, need to be careful what you are listening to. You need to be shrewd. When Jesus talked about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), He referred to teachers who appear in every way to be trustworthy and sound, but in the end they devour. You need to be on guard, especially in this age, when the pulpits of a million preachers and teachers can be found in your pocket.

You are responsible to listen to the truth. And the more you listen to truth, the more you will be strengthened, encouraged, the more discerning you will become, the more you will be conformed to the image of Christ. Yes, giving your ear to good preaching is critical for your Christian life.

To show you that I am not just speaking my opinions right now, let us go to the word of God.

Read 2 Timothy 4:1-8

These are some of the last words written by the Apostle Paul. He wrote this letter from a Roman prison, likely having already received a court hearing and expecting to soon be executed. And indeed, under Nero, Paul was martyred for his courageous gospel proclamation around the year 64/65 AD. He wrote this last letter to Timothy, the pastor of the church of Ephesus, and his long-time and beloved disciple.

Preach the Word

In many ways, chapter 4 is the pinnacle of Paul’s final letter, and right at its highest height, its most preeminent point, is Paul’s thunderous charge: PREACH THE WORD!

Just look at the introduction to “preach the word.” There is nothing else like it in all of Scripture: five intensifiers for a single command. Verse 1:

1. I charge you

2. In the presence of God

3. And of Christ Jesus

4. Who is the judge of the living and the dead

5. And by His appearing and His kingdom

PREACH THE WORD!

I charge you. This command carries weight. And beneath Paul’s charge, giving it incredible gravity, is the sacred and solemn authority of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Preach the word is a heavy charge!

In the presence of God. Though Timothy preaches before men, He is most ultimately before the Author of Creation. Paul will soon be gone, God’s presence is going nowhere. You preach before God, Timothy.

And of Jesus Christ. The Son of God who fulfilled the law, who established the gospel, who bled and died for His Bride, who is the Chief Shepherd of the sheep; He too is watching. When you preach, you preach in His presence.

Who is the judge of the living and the dead. What weight! Timothy, God will hold you accountable for the words you speak! If preaching becomes about the preacher, or seeks to entertain, or deals in half-truths; then that preaching be damned!

And by His appearing and His kingdom. The Messiah has appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and He has established His kingdom. Timothy, you steward the words of the King by your preaching. And He is coming again. Any resistance you face, persecutions that afflict you, trials you endure, He will vindicate and restore. He is coming again, so preach the word!

What an introduction! With five intensifying claps of thunder, then come those three resounding words: PREACH THE WORD! It reminds me greatly of some of Jesus’ last words to Peter, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).

But Paul says preach the word. If it isn’t clear, the word of God is Scripture, the Bible: New Testament and Old Testament. Jesus, the Word who became flesh, is the living embodiment of Scripture. Therefore, when proclaimed faithfully, all of God’s word points to Jesus Christ. This book is about the King, and these are His living words, and we are called to conform our lives to His word.

This is exactly what Paul meant just a few verses earlier.

Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17

God has breathed out His word to make us complete, to equip us for every good work. This is the word that must be proclaimed! Not stories, not pop psychology, not politics, not opinions. Christ: crucified, risen, and reigning as seen in the shadows of the Old Testament and the brilliance of the New.

The Greek word translated as preach is kerysso. It could also be translated as herald. Before the printing press changed the world, when a king wanted to communicate with his subjects he would send letters to be read and proclaimed by the town crier – or the herald.

The herald would lift the letter, and reading with the authority of the king, he would proclaim, “Hear ye, Hear ye, Hear ye…” And a good herald would cause his voice to fit the tone of the king’s message: somber, serious, passionate, joyful, weighty, powerful.

Preaching is meant to be similar. The preacher appropriately heralds the authoritative words of King Jesus to the subjects of His kingdom without deviation or self-insertion. Preach the word.

Though Paul issues this charge to Timothy, it applies to every man who stands before a church body and heralds the Bible’s message. Paul intended this letter to be read among all the churches; as did the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this charge is for me. This charge is for the other men who stand up here from time to time. This charge if for every man who preaches.

And yet this passage is not just for preachers. It is as much for you as it is for me – perhaps even more so. These five verses must inform the church – all of you – what to expect from faithful, Biblical preaching. Because if you do not know what to expect, you have no ability to discern, and with no ability to discern, you may end up following your preferences to poisoned food.

Read vs 3-4

Sound Teaching

Again and again, in both his letters to Timothy, Paul has been beating this drum of sound teaching – the importance of sound teaching. Sound teaching is synonymous with healthy teaching. Healthy teaching, saturated with the gospel of Jesus Christ, produces healthy, gospel loving Christians. Conversely, unhealthy teaching is not only false, but it produces sick people. It may taste so good at first, but in the end, there is only ruin and pain.

Therefore, God has set in motion a plan to rescue and protect His people from such harmful wandering: faithful men regularly preaching the word of God. Which is why, from the very earliest days of the church, the preaching of the word is the central element of our gatherings.

And yet, people will not endure sound teaching, instead they will look to get their ears scratched. That phrase, itching ears, may seem strange at first, but think about how hearing works. Spoken truth – sound teaching – is meant to go into your ear, penetrate your mind, and work its way down to your heart. If we hear something true, we are meant to be conformed to that truth.

Being conformed to truth is difficult, because it means something about you isn’t how it should be; God has named it sin and it needs to change, you need to repent and believe. It could be a relatively minor behavior or a deeply held identity; but regardless of degree, conformity to truth is difficult and often painful.

And because it is so challenging, many people do not endure sound teaching. Instead of the hard, transformational hearing of sound teaching, so many would rather their ears just get a little scratch, a light tickle. “Nothing deep or challenging for me, just a surface service please.”

So they accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

Is this not today?! More so than at any other point in history. Nearly every online platform is designed to give you what you want, to cater to your preferences, feed your passions. The recommendations YouTube keeps making for you are according to your passions. You accumulate by subscribing.

The internet is a wonderful tool if your passion is God and His Word. But if you use it to follow your own passions, it can turn deadly.

If Paul were writing in this age, perhaps he would have written, “People will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will curate feeds for themselves that suit their own passions.”

Who are you listening to? Though we can find powerful, healthy teaching through the internet (and what a benefit that is), Christ’s model for the local church is not to be pastored by men who will never know this flock. Am I and the other elders of Immanuel your shepherds, or does someone online scratch the itch better than us?

And even while we are awash with options online, false and dangerous teachers proliferate. Wolves are on the prowl, but they in every way look like solid teachers, do you know how to identify them? This passage helps you to identify what a good teacher looks like, and therefore what a bad teacher looks like.

But with no regard for such things, consider the dangerous progression of verses 3 and 4. First, they will not endure sound teaching. In other words, they get tired of it, it’s too hard, too challenging, too deep. They weary of sound teaching.

Next they turn to teaching that fits their unchallenged passions. They listen to what’s easy, entertaining, inspirational, fascinating – and very little that confronts their flesh.

Finally, they turn away from truth and wander into myths. Myths are fantasies, falsehoods, half-truths. Myths like the mark of the beast in a vaccine, or that God is genderfluid, or that God wants your best life now, or that there’s salvation in a diet, or an endless feed of other lies from hell.

Can you see who these people are? If they are turning away from truth, does that not mean that they were once listening to truth, to sound teaching? Paul was warning Timothy that these people were in his church, in the church of Ephesus. And just as they were in Timothy’s church, they are in this church. What is the feed you have curated for yourself?

Brothers and sisters, there is a protection from such wandering, thus Paul’s charge to Timothy: Preach the word! Week after week, in season and out, the faithful proclamation of word, if the sheep will receive it, will keep them from wandering.

How, then, does preaching protect the flock? Look again at verses 1 and 2.

Read vs 1-2

Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort

The preacher is to wield the word of God to reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

To reprove is to call out publicly.

But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. -1 Timothy 5:20 (NIV)

Things that are done publicly, like unhealthy preaching, is to be called out publicly as a warning. It is a warning to other preachers and teachers and it is a warning to anyone who gave ear to that unhealthy teaching. Reproving is corrective in nature. Its goal is to bring back the errant teacher or listener.

Rebuking certainly has overlap with reproving, but rebuking carries a stronger and more confrontational tone.

You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.

-Psalm 119:21

Reproving is to correct. Rebuking is to expose and condemn. If an errant teacher will not receive correction, then they must be rebuked: exposed and condemned. I do not mean condemned to hell, but condemned as a teacher. They are dangerous and no one should listen. In just a few moments I will show you what rebuking looks like.

But rebuking isn’t just for false teachers. If there is any sin in your life, church, then God will use the faithful proclamation of the word to reprove you; and if not reprove, then rebuke.

Finally, Timothy is to wield the word of God to exhort. I believe this to be synonymous with encourage.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. -Hebrews 3:13

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

-Hebrews 10:24-25

In one verse we read exhort one another, and in the next verse we read encourage one another. It is the same Greek word: parakaleo. Exhortation is to encourage. Encouraging has many different faces: praising, motivating, impassioning, helping, and so on.

The preacher, it would seem, is to have these two voices: one to reprove/rebuke, and one to encourage. As pastor David Mathis said, “The preacher needs two voices: one to sting; one to inspire. We challenge, and we cheer. We wound, and heal. Two voices: one that is corrective, confrontive, reproving, rebuking; and one that is more “positive,” constructive, winsome, encouraging. Preaching should include both, just as Scriptures include both.”

Paul then says that Timothy must preach the word with complete patience. I think this is an echo of something Paul said earlier to Timothy.

The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

-2 Timothy 2:24-25

A good pastor patiently endures the sheep that bite, the sheep that are prone to wander, the sheep that are slow to learn, the sheep that make a mess, sheep that are fearful. He wants to influence them. He wants to see them learn to love the Shepherd and follow Christ. The pastor focuses on what could be, rather than what is not, and he patiently preaches the word – reproving, rebuking, and encouraging.

Read vs 5

The preacher is to be sober-minded: not trite and fun, not easily swayed. He is to keep his head. Joy in God and sorrow for a fallen world are to hold the preacher upright behind his pulpit. Suffering will come, but still he must persist. The good news of the gospel must continue to go out.

And I pray that God will give me the grace to one day fulfill my ministry; as Paul did, having fought the good fight and finished the race.

Brothers and sisters, I told you that I would show you what rebuking looks like. I am about to rebuke two false teachers. Sadly, both of these teachers garner enormous audiences and pump out books and make millions. So many have gone to them to get their ears scratched.

I rebuke these teachers not because I want to participate in cancel culture. I do this because I know many of you listen to them, they are on your feeds. I do this because they are feeding you poisonous food, and I want you to live. I want you to be healthy! I don’t want to see you wander off into myths!

Joyce Meyer is a false teacher. She is a Word of Faith, Prosperity Gospel teacher. She propagates myths like angels tell her what to preach, that bloodlines can be possessed by demonic spirits, and a number of other superstitious myths.

In her message entitled, “What Happened from the Cross to the Throne,” Joyce Meyer said this:

I’m going to tell you something folks, I didn’t stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn’t a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that’s heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I’m righteous and I can’t be righteous and be a sinner at the same time. Now whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you want to operate on it or not, you are made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Most people who go to denominational churches never ever hear that! They never hear it! Never! All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I’m a poor, miserable sinner.’ I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is what I was and if I still am then Jesus died in vain. Amen?

While the Apostle Paul considered himself to be the foremost sinner (1 Timothy 1:15), Joyce Meyer considers herself to be sinless. The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Her words are smooth and they are nice to hear. But make no mistake, Joyce Meyer deals in half-truths. She is a false teacher. Have nothing to do with her.

The second false teacher you need to be aware of is Andy Stanley. Andy Stanley, son of Charles Stanley, has said that we need to focus on the words of Jesus and unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. In other words, he says we can do without the Old Testament. Isn’t that in direct contradiction to Paul, who said that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching (2 Timothy 3:16)?

Recently, Andy Stanley also said this to a group of pastors, “Telling gay people that they have to stop being gay to follow Christ is like taking a wheelchair from a guy who can’t walk.” “I believe in gay people. Some people are gay. They can’t change.” “I know I shouldn’t let experience dictate my theology, but I have. Maybe I’m wrong.”

These quotes stand in direct contradiction to all kinds of Scripture. Andy Stanley is increasingly promoting the myths of this modern age, and we must all refuse to give him ear. He is a false teacher.

These are two false teachers in a sea of false teachers. Again, I publicly rebuke these two because I fear that many in this room have given ear to them. I plead with you, avoid them.

Brothers and sisters, I am responsible to preach the word for your good and the glory of our Lord. It is your responsibility to listen. Listen to truth. Listen in such a way that you are transformed. If you do not find it here, you must leave. But do not leave to follow the itchings of your passions. You will only find ruin.

Through the preaching of the word you are feed, protected, reproved, encouraged, and conformed to gospel truth. Yes, many of these things can be experienced through personal reading of Scripture, which you ought to be doing, but God has placed a peculiar power on His word preached at the gathering of His church. Thus the preaching of the word is the central element of every faithful church.

Cultivate a hunger for the truthful, sound, faithful proclamation of Scripture; for man cannot live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).